Mon, 19 December 2011
Aprender ingles gratis con La Mansion del Ingles. Un podcast para mejorar la gramatica, el vocabulario y la pronunciacion del ingles. Una leccion del ingles con ejemplos y ejercicios.
Learn English free with podcasts from La Mansion del Ingles. Improve your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. This English lesson contains examples and exercises. Hello again to all of you and welcome to Mansión Inglés podcast number 43, recorded for November 2011. Taking your English to the next level. En el nivel básico este mes hemos practicado los verbos en el presente. Vamos a comprobar el significado de los verbos. ¿Cómo se dice fumar en inglés? – to smoke. Do you smoke? Repite: Do you smoke? I smoke, she smokes, he…smokes. He smokes 2 packs a day. – 2 paquetes al día. Repite: He smokes 2 packs a day. ¿Cómo se dice trabajar? – to work. I work, you work, he….works, she?....works. She works hard –trabaja duro – Repite: She works hard - she works in a café – Repite: - she works in a café - she works at home. ¿Qué es el verbo beber en ingles? – to drink – He drinks a lot of beer. Repite: He drinks a lot of beer. I don’t drink wine – I don’t drink tea or coffee – Do you drink tea? El uso de ‘got' - `I've got a new car' está mucho más extendido en el inglés británico que en el inglés americano. Los americanos prefieren la forma `I have’. Entonces, “I’ve got” en el ingles británico, “I have” en el ingles americano. Repite: I have a new car' – I have, you have, we have, he….has, she….has, it…..has, they….have. They have five children – Repite: They have five children or They’ve got five children. Repite: They’ve got five children. - They’ve got five children. El verbo To watch es mirar o ver – Watch me! – mirame – repite: Watch me! - My mum watches TV in the morning. Fichate en la pronunciación de la tercera persona he watches, she watches - Repite: he watches – he watches TV - she watches - she watches - she watches TV in the morning. ¿Cómo se dice leer en ingles? – to read – I read photography magazines. Repite: I read photography magazines. – magazines = revistas - I can’t read French. Repite: I can’t read French. - Do you read newspapers? Repite: Do you read newspapers? El verbo vivir es to live. Where do you live? Repite: Where do you live? - I live in Very good! - ¡Muy bién! También hemos practicado him, her, it and them. Listen and repeat - Escucha y repite: Do you like Swimming? Yes, I love it. What do you think of Lady Gaga? I don’t like her Do I like chocolate cookies? Yes I love them What do I think about golf? I hate it Monday mornings? I hate them Do you like shopping for clothes? Yes, I love it Do you like Colin Farrell? Yes, I really like him What’s your opinion of classical music? I don’t really like it What do you think about cats? I don’t like them Do I like getting up early? I don’t mind it Do you like horror films? No, I hate them Jennifer Lopez? I love her Escucha de nuevo y contesta las preguntas usando him, her, it o them. Do you like Swimming? What do you think of Lady Gaga? Do you like chocolate cookies? What do you think about golf? Do you like Monday mornings? Do you like shopping for clothes? Do you like Colin Farrell? What’s your opinion of classical music? What do you think about cats? Do you like getting up early? Do you like horror films? Do you like Jennifer Lopez? Great! – Now, moving on to our intermediate section this month we looked at Comparatives and Superlatives But before that I want to talk to you about our PACK COMPLETO. The Mansion Ingles Pack ahorro complete. It’s a special offer of ALL of our cds at a great price. All 9 Mansion Ingles cds. There’s a business English cd, a cd for the Cambridge FCE exam. There’s Mansion Travel and many more. 9 cds for only 99 Euros. You save 112 Euros, and we pay the postage wherever you are in the world. Now that’s a good deal. Es una oferta muy buena. For more details, and to order the cds, just click the cd icon on the right side of the home page at mansioningles.com. Ok, back to the English and comparatives and superlatives. Superlatives have the definite article the in front of them. For example: The fastest – lo más rápido - The fastest - the oldest, the smallest, the most expensive. If the word is quite long, say 3 syllables or more, use most and least (most=más y least= menos). The most expensive, the least attractive. If the word is short, add –est: The smallest, the nicest, the ugliest etc. Listen and repeat: I like you the most. – This is the worst coffee I’ve ever tasted – My phone was cheaper than yours. – Which is the best Beatles song? – Where’s the nearest supermarket? – This jacket is much warmer – He’s the most intelligent person I know. – He’s funnier than you – iPhones are more expensive than Nokia phones. – Of all the cities in the Great! – Ok, now let’s look at some confusing vocabulary. First the differerence between to meet and to know because in Spanish it’s the same verb – conocer – Another confusing pair of words is to lend and to borrow. You lend TO someone and borrow FROM someone. So, the bank lends you money. You borrow money from the bank. Repeat: Can I borrow your pen? - Can you lend me your pen? David lent me his camera. – I borrowed this camera from David. Next are the two verbs to listen and to hear. As I said at the beginning of the podcast, listen is often followed by to. Repeat: listen to music – listen to the news – Listen to this! Listening describes an intentional activity. Lo haces a propósito - When you are listening, you are actively trying to hear something. But hearing is something that happens without any special effort. You can hear something even when you don't want to hear it and don't try to hear it. Listen: - I listened outside the door, but I couldn't hear what they were saying inside.” “His story was so long and boring that I stopped listening, until suddenly I heard my name.” The verbs to earn and to win can also be confusing because they can both be translated as ganar in Spanish. Ha ganado la lotería – Repeat: He’s won the lottery – Él gana más que yo – Repeat: He earns more than me. - Do you earn a good living? - ¿Ganas mucho? - Do you earn a good living? To look like means to resemble physically – parecerse a – Repeat: I look like my dad – My sister looks like my mum - Who do you look like? He looks a bit like Tom Cruise. The verbs to wear and to dress can be confusing also. To wear translates as llevar. Repeat: What are you wearing tonight? – He always wears that old brown jacket. – That’s a nice ring you’re wearing. Dress, as a noun, means vestido and to get dressed is vestirse. The phrasal verb to dress up means to dress smartly – ponerse elegante – Repeat: Are you dressing up for the party tomorrow? Do I have to dress up? – fancy dress es un disfraz. In the advanced section this month we looked at some words that we can use to describe anger. To go berserk means ponerse I went berserk when I found out. – Why are you going berserk? What happened? Heated and argument like to collocate. If an argument is heated, there are some strong opinions and feelings involved. Repeat: We had a heated argument about politics. Cross C-R-O-S-S means angry, enfadado, enojado. To get cross is enfadarse, enojarse. Repeat. Why are you cross with me? Don’t do that or you’ll make me cross – It makes me so cross – me da rabía – It makes me so cross. How do you say furio en inglés? Rage – R-A-G-E. Rage is violent anger and the expression to fly into a rage means to become very angry. Repeat: My dad flew into a rage. – montó en cólera – He flew into a rage. Why are you in such a rage? – Blind rage is extreme anger – ira ciega - If something is all the rage it’s popular at the moment. Es el ultimo grito – Lady Gaga is all the rage at the moment. If someone blows their top, they lose their temper. To blow one’s top is an informal way of saying to get angry or lose one’s temper. Repeat: He blew his top when he found out. Ok, let’s see if you remember the idioms from this month’s cuaderno selection. I’ll say an idiom in Spanish and you say the equivalent idiom in English before I do. Then you should repeat the idiom in English to practice pronunciation. Ok, ready? So, “Quien la hace, la paga.” - “What goes around comes around.” “Yo tengo una tía que toca la guitarra.” - “What does that have to do with the price of tea in “Mas de un cocinero, se echa a perder el quiso” - “Too many cooks spoil the broth." “La ausencia es al amor lo que el aire al fuego”, o “Apaga el pequeño y aviva el grande" - “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” “Con un cambio de actividad se renuevan las energias.” - “A change is as good as a rest.” “A los tontos no les dura el dinero.” - “A fool and his money are soon parted.” “Las palabras se las lleva el viento.” - “Actions speak louder than words.” “Mucho ruido y pocas nueces.” - “All mouth and no trousers.” (I’m sorry about my bad Spanish pronunciation!) In the Business English section this month we looked at ways of changing arrangements and appointments. Listen and repeat the expressions. I’m sorry, I can’t make it. – Can you make it tomorrow? Does Thursday afternoon work for you? Does it suit you? Yes it works for me – Si, esto esta bien - Yes it works for me - Yes, that works. I afraid I’m completely snowed under at the moment. – to be snowed under – I can’t make it I’m sorry. I’m really snowed under. – I’m too busy – I’m snowed under. I’ll get back in touch next week. – Can we get back in touch soon? – Let’s stay in touch – Don’t lose touch, will you? Let’s leave it open for now – Can we leave it open? I think we should leave it open until next month. How about – How about discussing it at lunch? – How about meeting next Wednesday? – How about having lunch tomorrow? – How about going for a drink after work? Something’s come up - I’m really sorry, but something’s come up – to come up – sugir – something came up during the meeting – Has something come up? To put it off - Can we put it off until Tuesday? The phrasal verb to put off means postpone or delay – aplazar – They’ve put off launching the new product. - Han aplazado el lanzamiento Repeat: Can we put off the meeting? – Can we put the meeting off? – Do you mind putting off the meeting until next week? Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks to all of you for listening. And, if you want to contact us you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés and join our growing community of fans. Or send an email to: mansionteachers@yahoo.es. You can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit. Until next month then, take care, keep practising and taking your English to the next level! Bye!
Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de noviemre 2010 aquí: http://www.cuadernodeingles.com/cuaderno_mes/versionweb_mesesanteriores/cuaderno_11_nov.htm
Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí. http://www.cuadernodeingles.com/
Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí. http://www.mansioningles.net/formulario/altacuaderno.asp
The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit. |
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Fri, 28 October 2011
Aprender ingles gratis con La Mansion del Ingles. Un podcast para mejorar la gramatica, el vocabulario y la pronunciacion del ingles. Una leccion del ingles con ejemplos y ejercicios.
Learn English free with podcasts from La Mansion del Ingles. Improve your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. This English lesson contains examples and exercises. Well hello again everyone and welcome to this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for October 2011. En el nivel básico este mes hemos practicado el pasado del verbo To be (ser o estar). To be or not to be. That is the question! ¿Te acuerdas como se dice el verbo To be en el presente? I… am, you…. are, he….. is, she…. is, it….. is, we…… are, they…… are. Good. El pasado Ahora escucha y repite algunas frases del cuaderno de este mes. Where were you born? - ¿Dondé naciste? – Where were you born? – you born – were you born – Where were you born? I was born in I was born in a hospital! Of course! – ¡por supuesto! - of couse - I was born in hospital! Were you born in Where was your sister born? – your sister born – Where was your sister born? Where were you yesterday? – Where were you? – I phoned you – Where were you at 11 o’clock? – I was looking for you. Where were you all morning? – Where were you on Saturday night? – on Saturday night – Where were you on Saturday night? Who were you with? - Who - were - you - with? Who were you with on Saturday? Were you with him? Were you with Paul on Saturday? Where were you last night? Were you sick last week? Sick significa enfermo. Repite. Were you sick last week? – Last week - la semana pasada – last week – Were you sick last week? What was the date yesterday? The date – la fecha – What was the date yesterday? o What was yesterday’s date? Repite: What was yesterday’s date? Was it the 16th? Was it the 17th? What was it? Este mes también hemos repasado los opuestos de algunos adjetivos. Ahora voy a decir los adjetivos y tu tienes que decir el opuesto en ingles antes que lo digo yo. ¿Listos? Ready? High (alto) high – el opuesto es….low (bajo) low hot – cold empty – full – F-U-L-L- full dry (seco) dry – wet interesting – boring dangerous – safe the opposite of weak W-E-A-K weak – strong healthy – unhealthy o sick beautiful – ugly fat – thin Los verbos en inglés, como en otros idiomas, se juntan con palabras y frases específicas. Esto se llama collocation – la colocación. Por ejemplo. Se dice do the washing up (lavar los platos) y no X make the washing up X. Se dice ‘do the washing up’, con el verbo ‘to do’. Se dice ‘have a coffee’ (tomar un café) y no X take a coffee. X, como se dice en español. ’Have a coffee’ – tomar un café. Escucha y repite algunas frases del ejercicio en el cuaderno de octubre. Have a beer, have a coffee, have breakfast, have a sandwich, have some pizza, have some wine, have a drink, have lunch with my family, Let’s have dinner on Saturday. Listen - Listen to music, listen to a song, listen to the Beatles, listen to Snow Patrol, listen to the radio, Listen to me! Listen to me! Please listen! El verbo ‘to do’. Do the ironing (the ironing - la plancha). Do the ironing - Do the washing up, do the shopping The verb ‘to watch’ W-A-T-C-H - Watch a film, watch the TV, watch a film at the cinema, watch a football match, watch basketball (baloncesto) – watch basketball. Go for a walk (pasear) Go for a walk - I’m going for a walk. Go to bed, go to the beach, go shopping, I’m going shopping, go on holiday, When are you going on holiday? - go to the cinema – Let’s go to the cinema! - go to a restaurant, to go out is salir. I’m going out – Where are you going? – I’m going out. Great! – Now, moving on to our intermediate section this month we looked at some word families and some confusing vocabulary. But before that I want to talk to you about our PACK COMPLETO. The Mansion Ingles Pack ahorro completo is a special offer of ALL of our cds at a great price. All 9 Mansion Ingles cds. So, that’s our complete web site on Mansion CD, Mansion Business for Business English at intermediate level, There’s Mansion First for the Cambridge FCE exam. There’s Mansion Travel with dialogues and useful conversations and expressions for travelling abroad. There’s Mansion Listen for advanced listenings, Mansion Books for lovers of literature, and Mansion Auto 1 and 2 in MP3 audio for beginners. So that’s all 8 CDs plus a free cd of 100 software programs to help you learn English. All this for only 99 Euros. You save 112 Euros, and we pay the postage wherever you are in the world. Now that’s a good deal. Es una oferta muy buena. For more details, and to order the cds, just click the cd icon on the right side of the home page at mansioningles.com. Now, where were we? Where were we? Ah yes, word families. Now, the word “strong” what is it a noun? a verb? An adjective? A strong man – yep! It’s an adjective. So, if strong is an adjective, What’s the noun? Strength. – S-T-R-E-N-G-T-H- Your strength is impressive Mr. Bond! What are your strengths? Ok, so what’s the verb of strength? - To strengthen. Muchas de estas palabras se forman el verbo con el sufijo en - EN. For example, wide (ancho) – to widen, length – to lengthen – broad – to broaden – short – to shorten etc. We need to strengthen our relationship. How do you say sordo in English? – Deaf – D-E-A-F – Are you deaf? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. I’m a little deaf in my right ear. What’s the verb? – to deafen. If a sound is very loud it deafens you. The noise at the concert was deafening. The noun of deaf is deafness. What’s the opposite of short? – long. Short and long are adjectives. The noun of long is…..length, with a ‘g’, L-E-N-G-T-H and the verb is to….lengthen, good! What’s the noun of short? – shortness. Do you remember? A shortness of breath. I suffer from a shortness of breath. The verb of short is…..to shorten. Would you mind shortening the sleeves on this jacket? The sleeves – las mangas. Would you mind shortening the sleeves on this jacket? They’re much too long. Deep is an adjective (profundo) What’s the noun? – depth – D-E-P-T-H. We dived to a depth of 12 metres. What’s the verb? – to deepen. The mystery deepened. How do you say ancho o ancha in English? – wide. How wide is the balcony? What’s the noun? The noun of wide is…width – W-I-D-T-H. What’s the width of the garage? The width is more important than the length. The verb of width is to….. widen. We’re having our patio widened. Now, what’s the opposite of strength? – weakness. Weakness is a noun. A popular question in a job interview is “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” - “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”. The verb is to weaken. The earthquake has weakened the bridge. earthquake – terremoto. What’s the adjective of weaken? Weak. She has a weak heart. I prefer weak tea. W-E-A-K - and the same pronunciation as week (semana) W-E-E-K. And lastly, the adjective high – alto / alta. How high is that block of flats? What’s the noun of high? Height. How do you spell it? H-E-I-G-H-T. What’s the height of that building? Wearing socks with sandals is definitely not the height of fashion. Hmmm…someone should tell my dad that. Next we looked at some confusing vocabulary. If you have any questions about difficult or confusing vocabulary, go to Facebook.com/mansioningles and post a question. I’ll do my best to help you and answer your questions. If I can’t there’s usually someone on our Facebook fan page who can help. Apartment is the American English word for piso, apartamento. In British English, we say flat. Flats are on different floors in blocks of flats (or apartment buildings in the An advertisement es un anuncio. Sometimes advertisement is shortened to advert or just ad – A-D. There’s a great ad on the TV for the new Ford Focus. A warning es una advertencia. A word of warning, don’t be late. – Una advertencia, no llegues tarde. The verb is to warn – W-A-R-N. I’m warning you! A speech es un discurso, and it often collocates, or goes together, with the verb make. You make a speech or give a speech. People often make speeches at weddings and on formal occasions. Advice is consejo. Remember that advice is an uncountable noun in English. Repeat: Can I give you some advice? Let me give you a piece of advice. Notice is un aviso. Repeat: Did you see the notice on the wall? Notice is also a verb: He pretended not to notice me - Hizo como si no me hubiera visto. In the dictonary, publicity se traduce como publicidad, pero no confundas publicity con advertising. Publicity se refiere a la publicidad que se consigue sin buscarla. For example, “Accusing this bank of unfair competition has only given them some publicity” - Acusar a este banco de competencia desleal les ha dado cierta publicidad), mientras que advertising hace referencia a la publicidad por la cual se paga: For example, “How much did they spend on their advertising campaign?”, ¿Cuánto gastaron en su campaña publicitaria? And I apologise for my bad Spanish pronunciation. In the advanced section this month, the first exercise looked at advanced vocabulary collocation. In the first example we saw the expression “To set aside a few minutes” If you set aside some time, you save a period of time to do something specific. I try to set aside half an hour before I go to bed to do some reading. You know, a lot of people say to me “Oh I can’t do that. I can’t study English, I don’t have the time” Well, a lot of people do have time to do stuff. They need to set time aside. I hate to say it, but it’s true. I hate to say it is another strong collocation. Yesterday a friend said to me, “I hate to say it Craig, but you’ve put on a lot of weight lately.” Yes, I know.” I said, “I must set aside an hour every day for exercise.” Next was to make a purchase. The verb to purchase means to buy - comprar. I think it’s used more in American English than British. I often hear Americans say things like “I’m going to purchase a mew mobile phone” for example. Purchase is used in British English as a verb and a noun, but it usually has a more formal use. “When did you make your purchase, sir?” – “Did you purchase the item at this store, madam?” The verb to prove can mean probar, verificar, comprobar, but in the example the expression was to prove yourself. Give me the opportunity to prove myself. “He was given three months to prove himself” - Le dieron tres meses para que demostrara su valía. The word prompt P-R-O-M-P-T means rápido, pronto. To take prompt action is a strong collocation. Also, “He must receive prompt treatment” - Se lo debe tratar inmediatamente or sin demora. And, “They are prompt in their payments” - Pagan puntualmente The last collocation was closing date. I don’t know why we don’t say “ending date” or “shutting date”, but we don’t. Closing date means fecha tope. There was another translation for fecha tope in the business section of this month’s newsletter. Do you remember it? It was deadline. The deadline for the project is May 25th. The closing date is May 25th. Ok, let’s see if you remember the idioms from this month’s collection. I’ll say an idiom in Spanish and you say the equivalent idiom in English before I do. Then you should repeat the idiom in English to practice pronunciation. Ok, ready? A quien madruga, Dios le ayuda. - "The early bird catches the worm." Les da uno la mano y se toman hasta el codo. - “Give him an inch and he'll take a mile.” No es oro todo lo que reluce. - “All that glitters is not gold.” Caras vemos, corazones no sabemos / El hábito no hace al monje. - “Don't judge a book by its cover.” Another one: Moro viejo nunca será buen cristiano. (Hmm that rounds a bit racist to me) Moro viejo nunca será buen cristiano. In English?...- "A leopard can't change its spots." Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente - In English?...- "Out of sight out of mind." And finally, Perro ladrador, poco mordedor. - That was difficult to say. I’ll try again: Perro ladrador, poco mordedor. In English? - “His bark is worse than his bite.” My boss, he..he’s ok really. My boss, his bark is worse than his bite. Good! Ok, in Business English this month we practised a few questions that you may be asked in a job interview. Of course, it’s very difficult to know exactly what you’ll be asked in an interview before you go in, but I think there are some things that you can prepare and think about before you find yourself in the hot seat. You should definitely research the company before you go. Find out as much as you can about the company’s culture and the company’s history. Use Google and use the company’s website. When you’re answering questions, you can often give answers that relate directly to the company you are interviewing with, if you know the company’s background. Anyway, I’ll read the questions from the cuaderno to you now. Err..you should pause after each question and answer them as best you can. Then, then press play and listen to my suggested answers. So let’s imagine that you are at an interview now, and tell me…. What is your greatest weakness? I like to make sure that my work is perfect, so I tend to perhaps spend a little too much time checking it. However, I've come to a good balance by setting up a system to ensure everything is done correctly the first time. What is your greatest strength? Well, my time management skills are excellent and I'm organized, efficient, and take pride in excelling at my work. How would you describe yourself? I'm a creative thinker. I like to explore alternative solutions to problems and I have an open mind about what will work best. Do you take work home with you? When I need to, that’s not a problem. I realize the importance of meeting deadlines and getting work done on time. How many hours do you normally work? Hmmm…It depends. Working a lot of hours doesn't always mean high productivity. I typically work as many hours as necessary in order to do get the job done effectively. How do you handle stress and pressure? I react to situations, rather than to stress. That way, the situation’s handled and doesn't become stressful. I actually work better under pressure and I've found that I enjoy working in a challenging environment. What motivates you? I've always been motivated by the desire to do a good job at whatever position I'm in. I want to excel and be successful in my job, both for my own personal satisfaction and for my employer. Do you remember the meaning of the following vocabulary from the interviews? to handle – What does that mean? – to handle - In Spanish tratar, manejar tend to - soler, tener tendencia efficient - eficiente, eficaz pride - to take pride in something. Pride is orgullo deadline, you should remember - fecha tope o fecha límite challenging – I enjoy working in a challenging environment – challenging - que supone o constituye un reto or un desafío environment - ambiente desire means deseo and to excel - I want to excel and be successful - destacar, sobresalir – I want to excel in my work. Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks to all of you for listening. And, if you want to contact us you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés and join our growing community of fans. Or send an email to: mansionteachers@yahoo.es. You can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit. Y también si tienes una pregunta sobre cualquier cosa relacionada con el aprendizaje del inglés o la cultura inglesa, grábalo en un fichero de mp3 y mándanoslo por email – como un adjunto. Vamos a incluir vuestras preguntas y las respuestas en los podcasts mensuales del cuaderno. Ok? Until next month then, take care and keep practising English! Bye! The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit. Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de octubre aquí. http://www.cuadernodeingles.com/cuaderno_mes/versionweb_mesesanteriores/cuaderno_11_oct.htm
Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí. http://www.cuadernodeingles.com/
Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí. http://www.mansioningles.net/formulario/altacuaderno.asp
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Mon, 19 September 2011
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. Hello everyone! How are you? Welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for September 2011. En el nivel básico este mes hemos practicado un poco de pronunciación con los sonidos vocales. No voy a repetir lo mismo porque los sonidos están en el cuaderno de septiembre. Pero si podemos practicar los plurales. Yo voy a decir los sustantivos en singular, y tú dices el plural antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listos? One photo - two photos One glass – two glasses One city – two cities One key (una llave) – two keys One man – two men One party – two parties One baby – two babies One week – two weeks One child – two children Very good! ¡Muy bien! In the intermediate section this month we practised the past continuous tense. The past continuous, sometimes called the past progressive, is used to say that something was happening around a particular time in the past Repeat the examples: I was having lunch at 2 o’clock. What were you doing when I phoned? They weren’t sitting in the restaurant when we arrived. We can use the past continuous and past simple together. When this happens, the past continuous is used for the longer action and to provide background. The past simple is used for the shorter action. Listen to the examples: We were driving along when suddenly a dog ran out in front of the car. The driving was the long action and the dog ran out was the short action in the middle. She sent me a text message while I was waiting for her. Listen and repeat the following examples of the past continuous: Sofia broke her arm shile she was skiing. When I arived, they were talking about football. This time last week we were walking along 5th avenue in New York eating a hot dog. When I left home, the sun was shining, the birds were singing. It felt good to be alive. I looked out of the car window and I saw that we were driving past Big Ben. When I saw Sandra she was drinking Guinness! I met my girlfriend while I was travelling around When I got home my son was drinking my whisky. He told me that his wife was having an affair. While I was waiting for the train, someone stole my iPod. Next we practiced So am I and Neither am I So am I significa yo también. We can also say “I am too”. So does she means “she does too”. So has he means “he has too” etc. Neither am I and nor am I significan yo tampoco. We can also say “I’m not either”. Listen and repeat the examples: He’s Spanish, and so am I. She’s from I was angry, and so was my wife. I can’t speak French, and neither can he. I hate swimming, and so does she. ‘I’ve forgotten his name.’ – ‘So have I!’ 'She's learning Chinese, and so is her husband." ‘I’ve decided to lose weight, and so has my wife.’ I can’t drive, and neither can my wife. ‘I love travelling.’ – ‘So do I.’ Julie won’t be at the meeting, and nor will Stuart. ‘I bought an iPhone.’ – ‘So did ‘He’s tall and really attractive.’ – ‘So is his brother.’ ‘You look tired.’ – ‘So do you.’ ‘We weren’t surprised.’ – ‘Neither were we.’ The hotel was terrible, and so was the food. In the advanced section this month we practised some more phrasal nouns. Many people say that if you take enough vitamin C at the onset of a cold, you'll often recover faster. Onset here means at the beginning. – el comienzo – Yu sometimes hear people speaking about the onset of an illness, when the illness first started. Outbreak can be translated as brote - The World Health Organization website is a useful resource for tracking the outbreak of diseases worldwide. You should take precautions against the outbreak of flu. Page layout is the part of graphic design that deals with the arrangement and style treatment of elements (or content) on a page. Layout often means deseño and it’s common when talking about web page design, the page layout. It can also be used when talking about the inside of a house, for example. What’s the layout of the living room? I like the way the flat is laid out. – Me gusta la distribución The word outlet can mean salida, mercado, punto de venta and válvula de escape. - An outlet store is a brick and mortar or online retail store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Playing tennis was a good outlet for her. - Jugar al tenis le servía para relajarse Take-off is the phase of flight in which an aircraft goes through a transition from moving along the ground, or taxiing, to flying in the air, usually starting on a runway. To take off is the phrasal verb – What time does the flight take off? And also the phrasal noun – Please get ready for take-off. Warm up is another example of phrasal verb and phrasal noun. Don’t forget to warm up before the match. A good warm up before exercise can help prevent injury. Now I’m going to read the Student Banking text from the monthly newsletter, el cuaderno mensual, and I want you to guess the word when I pause. Now, this is quite difficult so you may want to do the gap fill exercise in the newsletter before you listen, read it again now or just listen to the text two or three times. Try to remember the vocabulary and repeat it after me. Ready? Here we go! Nowadays there is a wide…… choice of financial packages on offer for students, and it is……. advisable to talk to someone about the best….. deals available. Many banks have employees who specialize in student finances, they are called…… consultants, and they can advise you on how to make provisions for your needs during your…. course. Now is the time to work out your probable… spending on food, accommodation and…. books; and if you have any… savings, you should decide whether to draw them out. Credits cards are a mixed…. blessing. It’s easy to misuse them and find yourself unable to keep up with…. payments. However, don’t be disheartened with all this. Your earnings as a…. graduate should enable you to clear your…. debts with in a few years. In the Business English section, we practised vocabulary of office stationary and equipment. Listen to the words in Spanish and try to say the English translation before I do. Then repeat the words to practise pronunciation. sujetapapeles - paper clips papelera - wastepaper basket tijeras - scissors archivos/carpetas - files/folders maletín - briefcase goma - rubber ( perforadora - hole punch archivador - filing cabinet grapadora - stapler sacapuntos - pencil sharpener Mansion Business is our complete business course in Mansion Business contains business expressions and vocabulary, listenings and dialogues, reading texts and business functions like making presentations, speaking in meetings, describing market trends and lots more. There are 4 review tests to maximise learning, and over 120 hours of lesson time. The course level in Mansion Business is intermediate to upper intermediate, and you can buy this CD only from La Mansión del Inglés for 34 euros plus postage. So, if you need English for Business, you need Mansion Business. To order your CD, go to mansioningles.com, click on the CDs icon on the right side of the home page. Allí puedes ver todo el contenido del CD y bajar la primera lección gratis para probar sin compromiso. Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks to all of you for listening. If you want to contact us you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés and join our growing community of fans. Or send an email to mansionteachers@yahoo.es. And you can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit. Until next month then, take care and keep practising English! Bye! Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de septiembre aquí. Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí. Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí. The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit. |
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Mon, 19 September 2011
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. Hello everyone! Hello again. It’s good to be back with you again, and thank you for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for August 2011. En el nivel básico este mes, hemos practicado el vocabulario salon - living-room baño - bathroom aseo - toilet dormitorio - bedroom habitación de invitados - spare room cocina - kitchen Is there a computer in your house? computer = ordenador. Repite: Is there a computer in your house? Are there any pictures on the wall? pictures son cuadros y wall = pared - Repeat: Are there any pictures on the wall? How many bedrooms are there? Repeat: How many bedrooms are there? Are there any good restaurants? Repeat: Are there any good restaurants? Is there air-conditioning? air-conditioning significa aire acondicionado Repeat: Is there air-conditioning? Is there a television? Repeat: Is there a television? Is there a TV? How many chairs are there? Chairs = sillas - Repeat: How many chairs are there? Are there any plants? Plants of course are plantas Repeat: Are there any plants? Is there a microwave? Microwave in Spanish is microondas Repeat: Is there a microwave? Is there a window? What’s window in Spanish? Yes, it’s una ventana. You know that! ¡Sabías esto! Repeat: Is there a window? Is there a mirror? A mirror es un espejo Repeat: Is there a mirror? Is there central heating? central heating = califacción central Repeat: Is there central heating? Very good! - ¡Muy bien! Mira nuestro curso de iniciación para más práctica en www.mansioningles.com In the intermediate section we continued practising the wonderfully exciting gerunds and infinitives. This month we looked at some expressions in English that are followed by gerunds. For example, expressions like There’s no point in… – There’s no point in taking the car. – There’s no point - no tiene sentido repeat: There’s no point in taking the car. You may remember that after prepositions (in, at, on, about, for etc) we put a gerund. Well, in is a preposition, so ….gerund – Repeat: There’s no point in taking the car. I can’t help… – I can’t help thinking I made a mistake. – I can’t help thinking… - No puedo evitar pensar… – I couldn’t help laughing. – no podia evitar reirme. Repeat: I can’t help thinking I made a mistake. I couldn’t help laughing when he told me. I can’t stand… – I can’t stand waiting for people. Can’t stand means no soporta or no aguanta it means to dislike strongly. Repeat: I can’t stand queueing. – I can’t stand driving in big cities. Next was the expression to have a problem or have (some) problems or to have no problem… For example, I’m afraid I’m having problems understanding your accent. Repeat: I’m having problems learning English. She had a problem using the software program. We had no problems finding the hotel. It’s no use… – It’s no use asking me to give you a lift. It’s no use means it’s pointless, es inútil, - no serve de nada – it’s a waste of time. Repeat: It’s no use - It’s no use flying, the pilots are on strike. It’s no use shouting at him - It's no use crying over spilt milk - "De nada sirve llorar sobre la leche derramada" - "A lo hecho, pecho" / " Lo hecho, hecho está" - It's no use crying over spilt milk It’s a waste of time/money… – It’s a waste of time – es una pérdida de tiempo. It’s a waste of money – Es tirar el dinero – Repeat: It’s a waste of money buying mobile phone applications. It’s a waste of time learning phrasal verbs. Remember, you can learn more about gerunds and infinitives in our grammar section, and in our intermediate course, both free at mansioningles.com. In the advanced section this month we revised some verb tenses. I’m going to read the example sentences from the newsletter and I’d like you to tell me which verb tenses you hear. Ready? So, identify the verb tenses. First were three sentences with the verb to have
- “Don’t worry darling, give me the receipt and I’ll take it back for you.” (future simple with will – I will take it back for you – I’ll take it back.)
In the vocabulary section at advanced level, there were some phrasal nouns to practise. For example, standby. You can be on standby if you’re waiting for a place to become available at the airport. British Airways have no tickets available on any flight to You check in at the airport and a hotel when you arrive. Check-in is a verb and a noun. “Excuse me, where’s the check-in?” The next word, downfall, sort of translates as caída or perdición or ruína. We speak about the downfall of a dictator or a king, for example. Alcohol was his downfall. Drugs were her downfall. That’s what brought her down. Takeover was the next word. Toma de poder. You can have a military takeover. A company can takeover another company. A strong collocation is a takeover bid – B-I-D - Samsung has made a takeover bid for Nokia. A comeback is a return a revival – una vuelta, retorno – The fashions of the 1960’s are making a comeback. If a concert is a sell-out there are no more tickets left. They’ve sold out. It was a sell-out tour. Lastly, a check-up is revisión in Spanish. You should go to the dentists every six months so that he can check your teeth, or give you a check up (actually, I only go once a year). You can go to the doctor’s for a check-up too, but not for your car. Revisión And finally, in the Business English section this month we practised some business collocations with the word price. I’ll read the definition and you try to remember the collocations containing the word price. Ready? When prices go down, decrease, fall, drop, it’s called a price….cut. When prices go up or rise we say it is a price….increase. When the government try to limit price increases, we say that they put price……. controls. When companies fight with each other to get more of the market, and prices fall as a result, we say that there is a price…..war. Una etiqueta And finally, when there is a good period for sellers and prices rise quickly we say there is a price….boom. Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks to all of you for listening. If you want to contact us you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés and join our growing community. Or send an email to mansionteachers@yahoo.es. And you can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit. You can sign up for our cuaderno mensual and see all the previous newsletters and podcasts by clicking on the link on the Mansión Inglés home page. Until next month then, take care and keep practising English! Bye! Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de agosto aquí. Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí. The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit. |
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Tue, 5 July 2011
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. Hello everyone! How are you? It’s good to be back with you again, and thank you for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for July 2011. Hemos empezado el cuaderno mensual de julio con los meses del año. No son muy difíciles por que muchos que suenen parecidos al español. Por ejemplo ¿Qué es el mes de November en español? Si, eso es noviembre. ¿and October? – Si, octobre. No olvides que hay que escribir los meses con una mayúscula en inglés. Ahora escucha los meses y repítelos. January February March April May June July August September October November December También hemos practicado un poco de los números ordinales. Fifth – F-I-F-T-H es un número ordinal. Los ordinales en inglés se forman normalmente con sólo añadir la terminación -th. Excepto los tres primeros que son totalmente irregulares. Escucha y repite: First, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh Se usan los ordinales en inglés para los días del mes. Repite: The first of May la preposición of se oye muy debil. Escucha y repite: The first of May - The first of May - The first of May También se dice May the first Repite: The second of June June the second It’s the third of December It’s December the third Se usa el ordinal en los títulos de los reyes. Repite: King Juan Carlos the First Alphonso the Thirteenth Elizabeth the Second King Henry the Eighth También se usa el ordinal en las plantas de los edificios. Repite: I live on the second floor His office is on the third floor Aquí hay más ejemplos. Escucha y repítelos: This is my third job - This is my third job It’s my sister’s thirtieth birthday. Is she your first wife? Is today the fourteenth or the fifteenth? It’s our seventh anniversary tomorrow The expensive shops are on Fifth Avenue Very good! - ¡Muy bien! Ahora escucha y repite las siguiente fechas: The fifth of November, 1998 The second of February, 2005 The twenty-first of September, 2013 The twenty-third of April, 2011 The thirtieth of October, 2015 The twenty-second of May, 1999 The sixth of July, 2007 The first of March, 2014 Si quieres practicar más, hay ejemplos y ejercicios adicionales en la parte de gramática de nuestra página web mansioningles.com. Si prefieres aprende inglés con todo el contenido de nuestra web en un solo cd, incluyendo nuestros 3 cursos de inglés, compra La Mansión en CD por solo 24 Euros. Infórmate en mansioningles.com The words like and as can be confusing for Spanish speakers because they can both be translated to Spanish as como . I work as a waiter. Trabajo como un camerero. They stared at him like he was crazy - Se quedaron mirándolo como si estuviera loco. In the intermediate section this month, we practised some uses of like and as. Listen and repeat some example sentences. This tastes just like chicken. My sister works as a nurse. Why are you standing there like an idiot? I’m looking or a job, just like you. No, not like that. Do it like this. This looks like gold. It smells like onions. - It smells like onions. It sounds like Britney Spears. I’m tired, as usual. I haven’t got any money, as usual. I do it as a hobby. I love adventure sports like rock climbing and snow boarding. Next we had a look at gerunds and infinitives after verbs. Es decir, los gerundios y los infinitivos cuando vienen después de los verbos. I’m going to say some verbs and I want you to say ‘gerund’ if the verb is followed by a gerund, and ‘infinitive’ if it’s followed by an infinitive. Let’s see how many you get right. Ready? Ok, an easy one to begin with the verb want – gerund or infinitive? It’s infinitive. I want to go on holiday, I want to see you tomorrow. I want to say I love you. Now, the verb enjoy? Gerund or infinitive? Well, enjoy is followed by a gerund. I enjoy going to parties. I enjoy playing tennis. We all enjoy studying English with Mansión Inglés, for example. Now, what about the verb offer – ofrecer – gerund or infinitive? – infinitive – He offered to give me a lift to the airport. I offered to help her with her presentation. My boss offered to give me a rise in salary. Hmm.. actually I don’t think my boss would ever offer to give me a rise in salary. Hmm…actually, I don’t think my boss would ever offer to give me a rise in salary! Next is the verb to happen – gerund or infinitive? Infinitive again. She happened to be there - dio la casualidad de que estaba ahí. In Spanish, the verb happen can mean pasar or suceder or ocurrir. But when happen is followed by an infinitive, it means por casualidad. - If you happen to see her… - si por casualidad la ves… What about the verb refuse? – negarse or rechazar. Gerund or infinitive? – infinitive. She refused to see me. I refused to accept their offer. Are you refusing to do it? What about mind? Like in the expression Would you mind? Gerund or infinitive? Gerund. Repeat: Would you mind phoning me back this afternoon? Would you mind helping me with this? Also ‘Do you mind..’. Repeat: Do you mind waiting a few minutes? Do you mind going by train? What about the verb hope? Gerund or infinitive? Infinitive. Verbs that are used to speak about the future are usually followed by the infinitive. Repeat: I hope to retire when I’m 55. She hopes to change her car next year. What about remind - recordarle? Remind is followed by the infinitive. Please remind me to phone David tomorrow. Notice that the object pronoun ME is after remind and before the infinitive. Remind me to phone. Repeat: She reminded me to phone her. – She reminded him to go. – They reminded us to buy etc. Next we have the verb to admit. Gerund or infinitive? – gerund. Repeat: He admitted stealing the money – I admitted breaking the TV. Agree? Gerund or infinitive? Infinitive. They agreed to go out for dinner. He’s agreed to lend me his video camera. Suggest in Spanish is sugerir, proponer. Gerund or infinitive? Gerund. He suggested getting a pizza. They suggested leaving around 6 in the morning. The verb to deny – negar – gerund or infinitive? Gerund. He denied making the mistake. She denied having an affair. What about the verb consider? Consider is followed by a gerund. My wife and I are considering buying a house. I considered leaving my job. And promise, to promise – is it followed by a gerund or an infinitive? – infinitive. I promise to phone you next week. Will you promise to always love me? She promised to tell me. The verb to threaten in Spanish is amenazar. Gerund or infinitive? – Infinitive. He threatened to take us to court. She threatened to leave me. Next was the verb to appreciate. Gerund or infinitive? Gerund. Repeat: I really appreciated spending time with you. The verb to warn – W-A-R-N is advertir in Spanish. Gerund or infinitive? – infinitive. I warned you not to see him again. I’m warning you to stay away from her. Afford means permitirse (el lujo) or proporcionar. Gerund or infinitive? – infinitive. I can’t afford to buy a new car. Can we really afford to go on holiday this year? The verb advise? Gerund or infinitive? – Advise is followed by the infinitive. I advise you to make an offer on the flat. Notice that, like the verb to remind, the pronoun is between the verb and the infinitive. Repeat: They advised us to sell. She advised me to go. He advised her not to do it. Our final verb is to help. Is help followed by a gerund or infinitive? – infinitive. I’ll help you to do it. Again, notice the pronoun YOU after the verb and before the infinitive. Repeat: He helped me to do it. She’s helping me to make the video. They helped us to move house. Now, if you’re thinking of taking the Cambridge First Certificate exam, you need to study these gerunds and infinitives. You also need to prepare for the exam using the Mansion Ingles FCE preparation course. El curso lleva 60 horas de prácticas y estudio y ha sido desarrollado por profesores especializados en la formación práctica para la preparación a FCE. For more information, go to mansioningles.com and click the CDs icon on the right of the home page. Click on MansionFirst para ver el contenido del curso. Haz nuestra prueba de nivel de First Certificate to see if you have the level to take the exam. And you can also download course content free to try the course before you buy. In the advanced section this month we looked at some idioms. Let’s see what you can remember. I’m going to say the Spanish idiom in my horrible Spanish accent, and I want you to say the English equivalent in your excellent English accent. And to make it easier to jog your memory (para refrescarte la memoria – to jog your memory) I’ll say a key word that is in the English translation, to help you. Ready? Ok, the first one is “No vendas la piel del oso antes de cazarlo”, or “No vendas la leche antes de comprar la vaca.” – CHICKENS - “Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Another one: “Dios los hace y ellos se juntan. or Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres.” – BIRDS - “Birds of a feather flock together.” Ok? “No hay maestro como carne propia.” - EXPERIENCE - “Experience is the best teacher.” “No hay mal que por bien no venga.” – CLOUD - “Every cloud has a silver lining.” “Más vale pájaro en mano que ciento volando.” – BUSH - "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." “Cuando el río suena, agua lleva.” – SMOKE - “Where there's smoke, there's fire.” “A caballo regalado no se le miran los dientes” GIFT - "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." “Árbol que nace torcido, jamás su tronco endereza” – DOG - "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." How many did you remember? All of them? Well you can listen to this podcast again to jog your memory. Now, in the business English section we practised the following words and expressions: trade unions, to go on strike, technical support, personnel department, management, go slow, open-planned offices, an overtime ban, head office, office administration and industrial action. I’m going to read the text from the monthly newsletter, el cuaderno mensual, and I want you to guess a word when I pause. Now, this is quite difficult so you may want to do the gap fill exercise in the newsletter before you listen, or just listen to the text two or three times. Try to remember the vocabulary and repeat it after me. Ready? Try to guess the word. Here we go! In the Office The people who work for a company are its employees or personnel. Other names include staff, workforce and workers. The word for the group of people organising and leading the company is the management. The most important office of a company or organization is called its head office. Some managers have their own individual offices, but in many businesses most employees work in large areas where people work together, called open-planned offices. Office administration (or admin) is the everyday work that supports a company’s activities and it is often done by administration staff or support staff. For example, those giving technical help to buyers of the company’s products are in technical support. Labour unions (in Spanish sindicatos) are organizations defending the rights and interests of the workers. In British English, they are called trade unions. When workers are not happy with pay or conditions, they may take industrial action. If the workers walk out of their workplace and stop working for a time (hacer una huelga), they go on strike. Workers may decide not to go on strike, but instead to continue to work, but slower than usual, they have a go slow. Another kind of industrial action is where workers refuse to work more than the normal agreed number of hours that appear in their contract. This is called an overtime ban, Larger organizations have what is called a human resources department, or HRD. This department deals with pay, recruitment etc. Another name for this department is the personnel department. Well, that’s it for this week. Thanks to all of you for listening. If you want to contact us, you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés and join our ever growing community of 13,000 or so fans. Or send an email to mansionteachers@yahoo.es. And you can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit. You can sign up for our cuaderno mensual and see all the previous newsletters and podcasts by clicking on the link on the Mansion Ingles home page. Until next month then, take care and keep practising English! Bye! Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de julio aquí. Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí.
The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit.
Direct download: 2011_july_cuaderno_podcast_Final_Cut.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:32pm CEST |
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Tue, 7 June 2011
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.
Hello everyone! How are you? It’s good to be with you again, and thank you for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for June 2011.
Este mes en el nivel básico, hemos practicado algunas colocaciones con los verbos. Escucha y repítelas.
I live in a flat – Espera, ¿Cuantas palabras hay en esta frase? Escucha – I live in a flat. – Pues hay cinco palabras. I - live – in - a - flat. Nota como se juntan las palabras liveina – liveina- Repite: Liveina – I live in a flat.
I work in an office ¿Cuantas palabras hay? Escucha I work in an office – Aquí hay cinco palabras y se juntan cuatro palabras workinanoffice. Repite: workinanoffice – I work in an office. I work in an office - I have children. Repite: I have two children – I have three children. I have one child. I study economics repite: I study economics. I study law . Law – derrecho – I study medicine – medicina - I study medicine. I speak French – I drive a Mazda - I read e-books – I sometimes read e-books. - I like animals – I go to the cinema – I watch television – I listen to music. No olivides la preposición ‘to’ con el verbo ‘listen’ – listen to music. Repite: Listen to music. I like listening to music. I like listening to rap music. I like listening to hip hop.
También en el cuaderno mensual habían frases para traducir. Escucha a las frases en español, e intenta traducirlas al inglés antes que yo. Ready? ¿Listos?
María no habla alemán. - María doesn’t speak German.
¿Le gusta su trabajo a Peter? - Does Peter like his job?
Leo gana mucho dinero. - Leo earns a lot of money.
¿Que hace la hermana de Dave? - What does Dave’s sister do? - What does Dave’s sister do?
Su hija (de ella) ve la tele en la cama. - Her daughter watches TV in bed.
Mike lleva gafas. - Mike wears glasses.
¿Cuantos años tiene la abuela de Debbie? - How old is Debbie’s grandmother? - How old is Debbie’s grandmother?
Simon es el hermano de Andrew. - Simon is Andrew’s brother.
Lo siento, no tengo la dirección del correo electrónico de Suzi. - I’m sorry, I don’t have Suzi’s email address. - I’m sorry, I don’t have Suzi’s email address.
¿Como están sus (de ella) padres? - How are her parents? - How are her parents?
¿Donde trabaja el marido de Sandra? - Where does Sandra’s husband work?
Su tio (de el) no esta casado. - His uncle isn’t married. - His uncle isn’t married.
La gente en Inglaterra comen muchas patatas fritas. - English people eat a lot of chips.
¡Muy bien! Very good!
In the intermediate section of this month’s cuaderno, we practiced clothes vocabulary.
I’m going to describe some clothes and you say the item of clothing I’m describing. Ready? Here we go.
You wear these on your feet when you do sport, go running, or want to dress casual – trainers
Ok, this clothing accessory is worn around your waist and stops your trousers from falling down – belt
You wear this in the winter on top of clothes to keep you warm when you go outside – coat
Men wear this to look smart, especially if they work in an office or have a formal job. The jacket and trousers are the same colour – suit
This accessory is worn around the neck in winter – scarf
These are blue trousers, originally worn by cowboys and made from denim – jeans
You wear these on your feet to go out in the street – shoes
Underwear that you also wear on your feet but under your shoes – socks
You wear these in the summer, when it’s hot and you do sport, because it’s uncomfortable to wear long trousers – shorts
You wear these in bed. They usually match, which means the top part is the same as the bottom part – pyjamas
Next, worn by ladies, this is an item of clothing that can be short in the summer, long in the winter and elegant for special occasions – dress
You bear these on your feet when you play football on grass, sometimes when you ride a motorbike or do heavy construction work. Ladies wear these ‘high shoes’ in the winter – boots
Often worn by sportsman, this comfortable item of clothing has trousers and a jacket. The Spanish word is chándal – tracksuit
This is winter wear for the top half of your body. It should keep you warm and is often worn over a shirt or a T-shirt. Other names for this are jumper and pullover – sweater
Moving on to intermediate grammar and the wonderfully exciting subject of gerunds and infinitives! Aren’t they awful? How do you know? How do you know whether to use a gerund after the verb agree or an infinitive? How do you know if the verb surprise is followed by to see or seeing? Well, I’m afraid you just have to study each individual verb and learn which group it belongs to. There’s no easy way.
The verb agree. I agree, he agrees etc. Agree is followed by the infinitive. Repeat: I agreed to see him. They have agreed to let us do the presentation. She agreed to give me a lift.
The expression to be happy is also followed by an infinitive. Repeat: I was happy to see you finished the project. I’ll be happy to discuss it tomorrow. We’re very happy to be invited. I’m happy to help you.
The gerund is used after prepositions. For example, the verb to arrest – detener - is often followed by the preposition FOR. He was arrested for stealing. Repeat: He was arrested for stealing. He was arrested for hitting his neighbour. She’ll be arrested for not paying her taxes.
When to be used to has the meaning estar acostumbrado/a, the verb following it is a gerund. For example, I’m not used to getting up early at the weekend. Repeat: I’m not used to getting up early. She’s used to working long hours. He’s used to paying for everything. Surprise is followed by the infinitive. He was surprised to discover that he’d passed his final exams. I was surprised to get the job. Repeat - I was surprised to get the job. She was surprised to see me. He’ll be surprised to hear the news.
The expression to be worth – W-O-R-T-H – to be worth + a gerund means vale la pena. It’s worth doing – vale la pena hacerlo. It might be worth taking the DVD player to be repaired. Is it worth getting a new one? Repeat: Is it worth getting a new one? It’s worth phoning the shop. It’s worth asking them. Do you think it’s worth trying?
One thing that it is worth doing is going to mansioningles.com and practicing more gerunds and infinitives. You can find them in the intermediate course and also in the grammar section.
If you want to study our courses and material without connecting to the Internet, you can buy a complete CD of La Mansión del Inglés for 24 Euros. Go to mansioningles.com and click on the CD icon on the right side of the homepage.
Food and eating out was the topic of our advanced section of this month’s newsletter. Listen to the descriptions of some food vocabulary and try to say the word before I do. Ready?
A sauce added to a salad is a ….. dressing
Another word for a main dish is ….an entrée
A small dish at the start of a meal is ….an appetizer also sometimes called a starter or a first course. Remember that we speak about courses in English and not plates. A plate is the thing you put the food on. So primer plato is the first course, Segundo plato – second course etc. We had a three-course meal, a four-course meal. And we say that Paella is a typical Spanish dish, not plate. Lasagne is an Italian dish.
If you like your steak cooked just a little, or poco hecho in Spanish, you ask for it to it to be…..rare – R-A-R-E. I don’t like to see a lot of blood on my meat so I ask for it to be cooked a little more than rare, which is… medium rare. There’s still some blood but not too much. Cook it a bit more and you get to… medium. Sometimes I like my steak medium. Some people don’t like to see any blood at all so they ask for it to be bien hecho or….well done. I know that there may be different words in
So what do you call layers of alcohol-soaked sponge cake with fruit, custard and whipped cream? It’s …trifle. I don’t like trifle very much, but my dad does, and when I was growing up my mum made a trifle nearly every week. I got sick of it!
A small herb, like an onion, that is often added to potatoes, - in Spanish cebollinos - is called …..chives. Chives are great mixed in with mash potatoes, by the way. And if you add sausages you get a tasty Irish dish.
A kind of soup usually containing fish and vegetables is called….chowder – C-H-O-W-D-E-R - sopa de pescado. Clam chouder es crema de almejas.
All this talk of food is making me hungry, and it’s nearly time for dinner.
So, moving quickly on the next part of the advanced section where we practiced some food idioms.
Take what he says with a pinch of salt, means he may not be telling the truth. Be careful he’s probably lying. Take everything he says with a pinch of salt.
If you are full of beans, estas lleno de vida. Beans could be frijoles, alubias, judías, habas - green beans are judías verdes - but to be full of beans means you have a lot of energy and you are very lively. Your daughter’s full of beans today. Where does she get her energy from?
Ok, how do you say Eres la niña de mis ojos in English? You are the apple of my eye. Repeat: The apple of my eye. Or, as Stevie Wonder said, “You are the sunshine of my life”.
The expression as warm as toast, obviously means very warm – like toast! You’re feet are as warm as toast. Your hands are as warm as toast.
As you know, the English tend to put butter on their bread and not olive oil, but if you know which side your bread is buttered, you’re careful not to upset people who you know can help you, you don’t act in ways that would lose you other people's approval, or lose you an advantage. Hmmm…Pepe’s just got another promotion. He get’s on very well with everyone at work. He knows which side his bread’s buttered.
What do you say in Spanish when someone is taking your photo? We say “cheese” because if you say cheese you’re smiling. “Come on, give us a nice big smile, say cheese!”
“If you pay peanuts you get monkeys” You should give people the salary they deserve. To pay someone peanuts – cacahuetes – means to pay them very little. - Don’t take that job, you’ll be working for peanuts.
We say something is selling like hot cakes if it’s selling very well. In some countries, you say que se vende
If people are like two peas in a pod they are very similar. You can tell immediately that they’re brothers. They’re like two peas in a pod. They’re two of a kind. They’re so alike.
And to be as cool as a cucumber means to be clam and unruffled – in Spanish, sereno – He took the penalty and scored to win the championship. I really don’t know how he stayed as cool as a cucumber under all that pressure.
Something is a recipe for disaster if it's going to cause trouble or serious problems. Asking your mother to stay with us for a week is a recipe for disaster. Smoking, drinking, eating badly and not exercising is a recipe for disaster.
And finally, if something is your cup of tea, it pleases you or makes you happy. This expression is more commonly used in the negative. I’m sorry, but rollerblading is not really my cup of tea. Can’t we go shopping instead?
In the Business English section this month, we looked at some works using in banking. I’ll read the definitions to you and try to say the words before I do.
The difference between credits and debits in a bank account is…the balance
The money paid to a bank for the bank's services etc are called…bank charges
The local office of a bank (in Spanish: surcursal) is called ….a branch. Repeat: Where’s your nearest branch?
A type of bank account from which money may be taken at any time, and which usually pays low or no interest is called a current account (in the UK) and a checking account (in the US).
What’s the opposite of credit? The opposite of credit is…..debit – with a ‘d’. Debit is a noun and a verb. You have a debit in your account of 500 Euros. We need to debit your account for the amount of 80 Euros.
A bank account which pays you interest on your money is called a… a deposit account (in the
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There are 4 review tests to maximise learning, and over 120 hours of lesson time. The course level is intermediate to upper intermediate, and you can buy this CD only from La Mansión del Inglés for 34 euros plus postage.
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Allí puedes ver todo el contenido del CD y bajar la primera lección gratis para probar sin compromiso.
Money lent to you by a bank that must be repaid with interest – in Spanish un préstamo – is called ….a loan – L-O-A-N – a loan.
Deficit in a bank account caused by taking out more money than is paid in (in Spanish: descubierto or sobregiro) is….an overdraft - an overdraft.
The expression to put money into a bank account is to….make a deposit or simply to deposit money into an account. Excuse me, I’d like to make a deposit of 200 Euros. I’d like to deposit 200 Euros. You can also use the phrasal verb to pay in. Can I pay this into my account, please? I’d like to pay in some money. The opposite of to make a deposit is to make a withdrawal or to withdraw money. To take money out of an account – to withdraw money. I’d like to make a withdrawal.
If you give an instruction to a bank to make regular payments to a company or a person (in Spanish: domiciliar, orden permanente de pago) it’s called …..a standing order, in English. It’s common to pay your rent by standing order and your telephone, gas and electric bills also.
And finally, if you need to see a record of transactions in your bank account, in Spanish you ask for un extracto de cuenta. In English, you ask for…a statement. A bank statement.
Well, that’s it for this week. Thanks to all of you for listening. If you want to contact us, you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés and join our growing community of nearly 13,000 fans. Or send an email to mansionteachers@yahoo.es. And you can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit.
You can sign up for our cuaderno mensual and see all the previous newsletters and podcasts by clicking on the link on the Mansion Ingles home page.
Until next month then, take care and keep practising English! Bye!
Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de junio aquí.
Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí.
Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí.
The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit.
Direct download: 2011_junio_cuaderno_podcast_Final_Cut.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:40pm CEST |
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Fri, 13 May 2011
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. Hello everyone! How are you? It’s good to be back with you again, and thank you for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for May 2011. Este mes en el nivel básico hemos practicado el verbo to be (ser o estar). Yo odio el hecho que en español tengo que pensar siempre si digo soy o estoy. Nunca puedo entender si es ¿el es? o ¿el esta? En inglés es mucho más fácil porque hay uno solo verbo, el verbo to be: I am, you are, he is, we are etc. Existen en ingles las contracciones. Normalmente, no decimos I am Spanish, se dice I’m Spanish, or I’m English, I’m Mexican etc. Escucha y repite: I’m Spanish – I’m not English - I’m Spanish. Are you Spanish? Are you married? – I’m single – I’m a student – Is he your brother? We’re from He’s from Are you hungry? Tienes hambre? – Are you hungry? - I’m hungry. – I’m very hungry. It’s hot today. – I’m ok, thanks. – How are you? – I’m fine – Where are you from? - We’re from I’n the intermediate section we looked at some verb, noun and adjective forms that can be difficult for students. The adjectives broad and wide both mean ancho or ancha. The meanings are very similar, but the difference is often in the collocation. - the words that they like to go together with. For example, if you are very awake – muy despierto or despierta, you can say I’m wide awake, but not XI’m broad awakeX. Las palabras broad and awake no son buenos amigos and they don’t like to go together. Se puede decir We’ve got broadband Internet, but not XwidebandX. But you can say, “I’ve got a wide-screen TV” or “This camera has a wide angle lens.” Listen and repeat: wide awake – I’m wide awake now – broadband - Have you got broadband at home? – in broad daylight - They stole the car in broad daylight. – a broad coalition – The government formed a broad coalition. – wide open - The competition is wide open. So, if broad is the adjective. What’s the noun? – breadth. How do you spell it? B-R-E-A-D-T-H. What’s the verb? To broaden. Repeat: broad, breadth, broaden. What’s the noun of wide? – width. How do you spell width? W-I-D-T-H. So, what’s the verb? – to widen Repeat: What’s the width of this swimming pool? How wide is it? – When are they going to widen this road? How do we say profundo in English? – Profundo is deep – That’s really deep, man. – Esto es muy profundo, tío. And the noun of deep is……..depth – with a ‘P’, D-E-P-T-H. Do you remember the song How Deep is You Love by the Bee Gees?......So the verb of deep is to…..deepen. High was the next adjective – H-I-G-H. The noun of high is….height. How do you spell it? H-E-I-G-H-T What’s the verb? – to heighten. Repeat: How high is it? What height are you? We need to heighten our awareness. Awareness is conciencia – to heighten your awareness. Next is long. What’s the noun of long? – length. How do you spell length? – L-E-N-G-T-H. What’s the verb? To lengthen. Repeat – to lengthen. I need to lengthen the sleeves on this jacket. Sleeves are las mangas. And the opposite of lengthen is……? to shorten. Repeat: Can you shorten these trousers? They’ve shortened my week by 2 hours. What’s the noun of shorten? – shortness. How do you say falta de aliento in English? – shortness of breath I love strong coffee. I really like my coffee strong. I don’t like it weak. I’m the same with tea. I like strong coffee and strong tea. What’s the noun of strong? – strength. How do you spell it? S-T-R-E-N-G-T-H. And what’s the verb? – to strengthen. What’s the noun of the adjective weak? – weakness. And the verb? To weaken. Repeat: What are your strengths and weaknesses? – the virus he caught has really weakened him. And the last adjective in this group was deaf – sordo – to go deaf – quedarse sordo. My dad went deaf when he was 75. Repeat: Are you deaf? Are you deaf or something? – What’s the noun of deaf? – deafness. And the verb? To deafen – ensordecer – Repeat: turn down the volume. It’s deafening! Moving on to the advanced section of this week’s newsletter, Lets practise some health vocabulary. If you are run down, you feel tired and low on energy. When you’re sick and have the flu (el gripe) or a bad cold you often feel run down. And batteries - Las pilas - also run down when you use them. The remote control isn’t working. I think the batteries are run down. You feel run down if you work too hard and don’t eat properly. How are you feeling? You look a bit run down. – hecho polvo. Sharp and pain collocate, they go together, so we say “I’ve got a sharp pain in my leg, for example. The noun ache - A-C-H-E - collocates with dull. I’ve got a dull ache in my back. The preposition that goes with allergic is to. I’m allergic to penicillin. What’s the noun of allergic? – allergy. She’s got an allergy to cats. Wounded is usually used when a person has been hurt is a war or armed conflict. “How many soldiers were wounded?”. It can also be used figuratively; You have wounded me emotionally.” To be hurt is more general, but you usually say this when you can't do an activity because of an injury, or when you feel emotional pain. You’ve hurt me deeply. You say you are injured when you have problems with joints or bones. Repeat: Was anyone hurt? He was badly wounded in Damage can mean dañar, hacer daño a algo, but when speaking about health it can mean perjudicar. Smoking can damage your health. If you feel drowsy, tienes sueño. I felt really drowsy during the meeting. This wine is making me drowsy. And if you drink too much wine, it can also make you tipsy or achispado o bebido. I feel a little tipsy. And to feel dizzy – D-I-Z-Z-Y is estar mareado. If you turn around quickly 4 or 5 times, you start to feel a bit dizzy. A bandage is Stitches – S-T-I-T-C-H-E-S are puntos, the verb is to stitch, so if you cut yourself badly you’ll probably need to have stitches. I went to the hospital and I needed stitches. A sling is un cabestrillo. So, to have one's arm in a sling is llevar el brazo en un cabestrillo. Boils, blisters and blemishes were our next three words. A boil is un furúnculo, I hope I’ve pronounced that right.- furúnculo – furúnculo- and a blister is what you get on your feet when you’ve walked a very long way or when you buy new shoes and they rub against your skin. Blisters are ampollas. A blemish – B-L-E-M-I-S-H is an imperfection. If a person has a blemish on his reputation, pues tiene una mancha en su reputación. You can have a blemish on your skin. The verb to dislocate is similar in Spanish, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Dislocarse. He dislocated his shoulder. To sprain is hacerse un esguince. – I think I’ve sprained my ankle – creo que me han hecho un esguince en el tobillo. I can’t play tennis tomorrow, I’ve sprained my wrist. A pulled muscle is un tirón muscular. I’ve pulled a muscle in my leg. And our final three words in this exercise were bruise, rash and warts. Well, bruise is un moretón and it’s also a verb to bruise magullarse. Careful of the spelling of bruise B-R-U-I-S-E – Same pronunciation as cruize - bruise. I bruise easily. I banged my leg on the dinning room table and a big bruise has come up on my leg. A rash – R-A-S-H is sarpullido o erupción. We can say that he came out in a rash – Le salió un sarpullido – He came out in a rash or he broke out in a rash. To scratch is rascarse, so if you come out in a rash, you shouldn’t scratch it. It might get worse. And finally a wart is una verruga. He’s got a wart on his face. Moving on to this month’s Business section, there were some useful phrases you could use in a business context, or just to be polite. In some situations where you need to be formal, maybe for example if you don’t know the person you are speaking to, well in Spanish you use the usted form, or in French the vous form. English doesn’t have a polite form for the 2nd person, so we use different language. We say, “I would like…” or “I’d like….” and not I want. Or “Would you mind giving me” and not give me, or “could you” instead of can you. And of course lots of “pleases” and “thank yous”. But perhaps more importantly, we use polite intonation. Listen and repeat: Please could you help me? Would you like to leave a message? How can I help you? Thank you very much for your time today. Thank you for your quick response. What would you like to know? I would be grateful if you could attend our presentation. I'm afraid I don't know where the entrance is. Use should to offer advice to someone. Repeat: You should forward your request to personnel. You shouldn’t phone her yet. You should wait a couple of days. You should get in touch as soon as possible. You should ask for a raise in salary. You shouldn’t work so hard, you look a bit run down. Must is often used for things that are compulsory and mustn’t for things that are prohibited. You must finish the report by Tuesday. Employees mustn’t smoke in the building. On the phone you can ask to be connected to someone or to a department by saying “Could you put me through?” Repeat: Could you put me through to the sales department, please? Hello, Could you put me through to Mr. Jenkins. Please put me through to Mrs. Smith. You may hear a secretary or receptionist saying “Just a moment, I’m putting you through” or “Please hold the line and I’ll put you through when she’s free.” And remember, when you answer the phone, say “Hello, David speaking” or “This is David here”. Don’t translate from Spanish, because “I am David” sounds very strange. Well, that’s it for this week. Thanks to all of you for listening. If you want to contact us you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés and join our growing community of over 11,000 fans. Or send an email to mansionteachers@yahoo.es. And you can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit. Until next month then, take care and keep practising English! Bye!
Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de mayo aquí.
Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí
Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí.
The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit. |
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Fri, 13 May 2011
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. Hello and welcome to another Mansion Ingles podcast from mansioningles.com How are you? It’s good to be back with you again, and thank you for downloading this podcast, recorded for April 2011. En el nivel básico este mes habían adjetivos que van con sustantivos, como a fast car – un coche rápido, a beautiful girl – una chica guapa. En inglés, normalmente se colocan el adjetivo delante del nombre y no detrás como en español. Escucha y repite: A fast car. An expensive car. A Ferrari is an expensive car. It’s made in Escucha los siguientes adjetivos en español y intenta decir los en inglés antes que yo. Ready? ¿Listos? pequeño small frío cold bueno good rápido fast sucio dirty triste sad alto high difícil difficult nuevo new caro expensive rico rich gordo fat fuerte strong aburrido boring largo long Well done! – ¡muy bien! In the intermediate section this month, we studied some pronouns and descriptions of vocabulary. Remember, we use who for people, where for places and which for things. Whose –W-H-O-S-E means de quien. Whose is this 50-Euro note? ¿De quien es esté billete de 50 Euros? – It’s mine! Listen and repeat some examples: A vegetarian is a person who doesn’t eat meat. A microwave is a machine which cooks food quickly. A bus stop is a place where you wait for a bus. Whose dog is that? Also in the intermediate section, we looked at the pronunciation of the –ed endings for regular verbs in the past. The pronunciation rules, las reglas, are explained in the newsletter, in the cuaderno, but there are 3 endings: a voiced ‘d’ sound, an unvoiced ‘t’ sound and an ‘id’ sound. There isn’t much difference between the ‘t’ and the ‘d’, between ‘listened’ and ‘hoped’, for example, but there is a difference if you make a mistake with the ‘id’. There’s a difference between travelled and travel-ed and between arrived and arriv-ed and between called and call-ed. The only time you pronounce the –ed as /id/ is when the last sound of the verb is a ‘t’ or a ‘d’. For example start – started or end – ended. Now listen and repeat some verbs in their groups:
Moving on to the advanced section this month, we looked at some slang and informal expressions. To get into can mean to become involved in, or start doing something. For example, I got into teaching about 18 years ago. My God, is it really that long ago? Doesn’t time fly when you’re enjoying yourself? It seems like only yesterday! Grass is slang for marijuana. Also there’s weed, ganja, funk, Indian hemp, giggle bush, splif, reefer, dope, kush, Mary-J, herb, green, draw, purple haze, roach, smoke, oregano, zippiddee doo, moon walk, Jb, sensi, bud, shake, cookie monster, pot and, my personal favourite, Devil’s lettuce. To throw up means to vomit. I threw up after that take away last night. And the phrasal verb to back out means to retreat from an agreement, deal or promise. I can’t believe the investors backed out. Now what are we going to do? To bat an eye is a bit like blinking. If you don’t bat an eye, you show no surprise nor any sign of guilt or shame. When they asked her about the crime, she didn't bat an eye. - Her expression didn't change. If you face the music, you accept the unpleasant consequences of your actions. I badly scratched my dad’s car and eventually I had to go home and face the music. Vibes are feelings. Repeat these examples: I’m getting really bad vibes from my girlfriend. Hey, I love the vibes I’m getting from your new designs. I’ve got some great vibes about this music. You can use mean as an adjective for something a person does well. She’s a mean guitarist - She’s a great guitarist. I heard you’re a pretty mean World of Warfare player. We also practised some adjectives and their dependant prepositions. Listen and repeat: What are you so excited about? It’s very different from his last work. I’m so jealous of your review. What’s he famous for? What are you afraid of? What’s wrong with you? We’re very grateful for your help. She’s angry at me for loving her. Who’s responsible for safety? He’s very proud of his track record. He’s very disappointed in his son. I’m absolutely crazy about her! What are you going to invest in? Are you aware of the dangers? What’s he boasting about now? She should be ashamed of herself. There were many more expressions and vocabulary in the business section this month. For example, when you answer the phone say “Who’s calling please?” Repeat: Who’s calling please? The phrasal verb to bring up means to mention. Why didn’t you bring it up during the meeting? Why didn’t you mention it during the meeting? I think you should bring it up next time. Remember, “Where does he work?” is a direct question. “Do you know where he works?” is an indirect question. Indirect questions do not have the auxiliary verbs do, does or did. Repeat: “Do you know where he works?” - Could you tell me where he works? - Would you mind telling me where he works? - I was wondering where he works. Skills are habilidades in Spanish. In a job interview, you may hear “What are your skills?” or “How would you rate your personal skills?” or “What computer skills do you have?” It’s a good idea to include any relevant job skills on your CV. “I was wondering if you could….” Is a very polite way of asking someone to do something. Repeat: I was wondering if you could send me the report. I was wondering if you could give me a lift to the airport. I was wondering of you could send an email to him. Another polite way of asking is “Would you mind…..” ¡Ojo! “When Would you mind…” is followed by a verb it’s the I-N-G form (the gerund). Repeat: Would you mind making a reservation? Would you mind sending it as an attachment? Would you mind meeting me at my hotel? You can use the expression “Would you like to….” to make an invitation. It’s similar to “Do you want to….” but it’s a bit more polite. Repeat: Would you like to meet me for lunch? Would you like to go for a drink after the meeting? Would you like to have dinner with me? When were you born? ¿Cuando naciste? That’s quite difficult to say. When were -When were you born? Repeat: born – you born – were you born – When were you born? – When were you born? - Where - ¿Dónde? Where were you born? repeat: Where were you born? A fortnight is two weeks. In a fortnight’s time is two weeks from now. The day before yesterday is two days ago. The day after tomorrow is two days from now. Repeat: The day before yesterday. The day after tomorrow. In a fortnight’s time. Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks to all of you for listening. If you want to contact us you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés and join our growing community of over 11,000 fans. Or send an email to mansionteachers@yahoo.es. You can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit. Until next month then, take care and keep practising English! Bye! The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit.
Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de abril aquí.
Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí.
Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí.
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Tue, 22 March 2011
An Interview with Lucy Cattermole who gives helpful, practicle advice on the best way to study English abroad. Una entrevista con Lucy Cattermole y consejos imprescindibles sobre como estudiar y mejorar su inglés en el extranjero. Transcription Can you tell me a bit about yourself an..and your job? What exactly do you do? Er..yeah, I am a…well, I’m a history graduate..erm..talking about my job at the moment, I..erm..I..first of all, I live in Spain..erm..I’m English, but..er.. I..I came across Spanish in Spain really from travelling in South America, which I did just after university. Erm…and after that, after I’d had some fun there I moved to Spain with the British Council, doing a teaching, kind of a teaching training project. Whi…Which British Council school did you work at? It…oh…it was called the Intxixu Ikastola which is in Basque, not Spanish in fact,...erm..which was a great experience for teaching. It was small kids, it was kind of 5-year-olds to 10-year-olds. Erm…but I decided teaching wasn’t quite for me, and that’s when I got into working er..in a language school. Erm…which was a group of language schools with schools in the UK, the US, Australia..erm..and from then I’ve just I’ve..I’ve.. carried on really ever since that. I’ve moved from that school to a different school, and I’m now working in EC which is a group of ..er..schools; UK, US, South Africa and Malta. Did you do any teaching when you were travelling around South America? I didn’t actually, no. At that stage it was only a short trip and I just kind of fell in love with the Spa..well, you know, the Latin culture and that kind of thing, and..er.. basically enjoyed that. So I didn’t do any teaching there, but I applied for a placement with the British Council whilst I was travelling, and they placed me in Spain rather than South America. Th..they choose basically…erm..which turned out to be Bilbao. So what made you decide t..to stay in Spain permanently? Erm…oh..everything really. Compared to ..er..Sheffield, where I’m from, in the North of England there’s not much choice. Er..the weather, the food, the people… How long have yo…how long have you been here? Since 2001 nearly 10 years now. About the same as me. Yeah. No it’s lovely. I miss home. I do miss home. I love things about England, but..erm..I think I…. What do you miss….what do you miss the most? Er…English breakfast..erm…pubs, my family, my friends..erm..TV, which I can get over here apparently, but I haven’t managed to fix that up yet..erm..but no I’m having a good time over here as well. Ok so erm..why is it a good idea for Spanish students to study English abroad? Oh..erm..loads of reasons, I would say..erm..personally, well s...speaking from my own experience learning another language and ..er..managing to kind of communicate everything and anywhere that you need is just…it’s amazing, it’s really rewarding..erm..apart from that obviously English with the majority people now and of course Spanish it’s kind of a vital element of your CV..of er.. working life..eerm..and apart from that of course, it’s great fun and I think it’s mind..er..I don’t know, it op..opens your mind a lot, it makes you much more culturally aware..erm..I definitely have become a much more er..open person than I was before..erm..and..well..no..I de..I definitely definitely recommend it..erm… So if a…if a Spanish person..erm..living in Spain were thinking of going to study abroad, where would you recommend? Wh..what destinations are popular for Spanish people? Erm..at the moment it.. it’s more European based I would say, the UK..Malta’s also a very popular destination in the summer time…erm…a lot of people don’t even know that Malta’s English speaking I don’t think but..erm..it definitely is, ..erm..and that’s become much more popular in recent years. Erm…the US is on the up because I think, well prices, because of the weaker dollar in the last few years have er…have been much better. Air fares are much cheaper..erm..and then…well, New Zealand and Australia, South Africa they’re kind of more exotic destinations. Not as many people kind of, I think, kind of dare t..to make that big leap, but it’s definitely worth it if they can …erm.. My students often…. My students often ask me for recommendations, they say ..erm..”Do you prefer Ireland, or ..erm..or..maybe Wales or Scotland or England?”, and I tend to say that..erm.. Irish people are more open and friendly and they’re easier to talk to. What do you think? Mmm..I suppose! Being English, it hurts to say it, but I think it probably might be true. Erm…although I do feel us English are changing, I really do. I think we’re also erm..I think...y’know England has become a much more multi-cultural society, and I think with that people have become more used to…kind of… we’re not so closed and English…and er…y’know..er.. private. So I think it’s….but Ireland is beautiful, it is, ..erm..and the people do have a very good reputation for their friendliness, definitely. So, if the students decided to go abroad and study, what advice would you give? Erm…I would definitely say go alone, and I know it’s harder..erm..but, as I said again from personal experience, I…when I first travelled to Spain and..er.. I was living in Bilbao I was totally alone, and th..the massive..erm.. advantage of that is that you learn the language so much quicker than if you go in a group of friends, because..erm.. obviously with your friends, y’know, you’re speaking in your own language it’s…it’s much easier to stay in your group, than to ..erm..than to kind of break out..erm..as long as ..you know, if you’re very determined then you’re gonna get on with your course and make friends with others, then it’s fine to go in a group, but I think you’re kind of more forced into practising..erm..if you’re on your own It’s very tempting, isn’t it, to.. to speak Spanish when you’re in a group of..of Spanish speakers? Exactly, well it’s almost imposible..er..again, the Spanish, lovely people that they are, are very sociable and I, y’know, very talkative and it’s very… I think it’s hard to..to break out from that …if they’ve got…if the option’s there. So..erm.. I do try to recommend people to at least..at least, y’know, find accommodation on their own, even if they’re gonna go to the same destination as their friends..erm…maybe even different schools..and just yeah so as long as they’ve only got a limited time together. Erm…and regarding a big city or a small town, erm… I think that really depends on the kind of person, y’know, the person considering going abroad. That’s a…that’s a question that a lot of students ask me and I..and I really thi…I agree with you I really think it depends on what kind of…what they’re looking for. What sort of experience they’re looking for. Exactly……exactly, I mean, we for example, in the UK we’ve got schools in the London, Cambridge and Brighton. Cambridge and Brighton are much smaller destinations, if it’s like…if it’s the first time somebody, y’know, leaves their home town, they’re from a small town, maybe they’re nervous, they’re quite young, then I would say maybe try…the first time try a smaller destination, like Cambridge or something But if, y’know, if it’s somebody from Madrid who’s already been out a few times, well then go for London, make the most of it, definitely. Do you think it’s true Lucy that there’s more of chance to..to speak and practise English in a smaller community, in a smaller town, than going to a big metropolis like London? I guess so in a way, yes because you’re kind of in a more close knit community an..and maybe have more of an opportunity to mix with..erm.. with people from the city, from the town itself, but..erm..again, I think it depends on you..you have to…, as in the student, has to make the effort at the end of the day,. Home stay. Erm..students also ask me whether they should go to home stay, stay with a family, or go to a hotel. They’ve both got…they’ve both got advantages. Staying with a…a family obviously is wonderful, because y.. you get…you get the insight the culture. You’re living in a completely different..a different way, the food’s different the way people behave are different and you..you get a kind of…you get an extra support. When you go home at night, y’know, you’ve got your adopted mum or dad or both and brothers and sisters and that kind of thing, which is..which I think is a great experience ..erm..it can be difficult for students..erm.. because you have to be ready, I think, to adapt..erm..you’re not gonna eat at the same time, for example, as in Spain., you’re gonna have to eat a lot earlier. Erm…the food might not…might not be as nice as to what you’re used to with your..with your mum and your dad..erm..but I think as long as you go with an open mind, it’s …it’s a great experience..erm..and as long as you’re ready to, at the beginning, to feel a little bit..er..y’know, a little bit “.oo..what’s going on here?”..erm..after a while you’ll soon settle in, you just have to give it a week or so and then most people are extremely happy doing..er.. staying at an English family. Erm.. and wi..with hotels or residences..we…we normally work with..erm…student residences where we..where we..place, y’know, students from all over the world…erm…that experience is great because obviously you’re mixing with loads of people, normally of a similar age to you, from all sorts of countries, so you can make loads of friends and normally those friendships last for years, and you go and visit them in their countries afterwards, that kind of thing. Erm…so both have their…both have..have advantages really, again it depends on..on the person travelling, I would say, and what they want out of it. I have spoken to students who have had bad experiences in…in home stay situations. Erm…what would…what would your schools do in that situation, if a ..if a student came to you and said, “I’m not happy, I don’t like the food, the people aren’t very nice to me…” Yeah, erm…to be honest, as I’ve just said now if that happens a lot, at least at the very beginning, because I think a lot of people are quite…it’s quite difficult to adapt. I mean it’s very important..erm.. for people to kind of advise that, y’know, at the beginning it will, it might be a little bit difficult, but maybe to try and hang in there and see if it gets better, which I would say 95% of..of people who..who come unhappy to me, normally within a week or two are perfectly fine. Erm…in the case that it’s not ok, schools in general, and definitely our school, erm…we inspect our families on a monthly or bimonthly basis..erm..we go and visit them, we check out the room, we, y’know, we sign a contract with them for the kind of services that they have to offer..erm..and so schools should be controlling that very well. Erm..y’know, it..there can always be an exception, but it’s..it’s really very rare..erm…and, yeah as I said, I think the majority of the problems are more adaptation rather than actually, y’know actually about the family. And so be flexible is your advice, be prepared to adapt and..er.. fit in…and be flexible.. Definitely, definitely. And, as I’ve said, I, I mean, I’ve done the same thing myself in Spain, at the beginning things are so different it is hard, erm.. but remember y’know, you’re doing this for a reason, you’re learning English, it is going to be a bit difficult at the beginning..erm.. and it’s definitely, y’know, just be a bit patient and..er.. open-minded, I’d say. Exactly. Apart from home stays, hotels, accommodation, what other things should students take into consideration when they…when they study abroad. Erm..well, obviously I mean, Spanish may not have this problem too much , but there are things like visas..erm..obviously airfares, medical insurance..erm..most..I mean you can..you can either reserve these yourself, or obviously with..er..with the person you’re..you’re reserving your course with…erm…but erm …I mean, yeah, there are a lot of…there’s also airport pick ups. A lot of people when they arrive at the..er..in a foreign country like to have somebody waiting for them to collect them and take them to their..erm..accommodation which..which kind of gives you a feeling of…a feeling of security, I think..erm.. OK, well, ..erm..is their anything you’d like to add because I’m out of questions? Erm…the only thing I can say is if you’re considering studying abroad, do it. It’s erm..it’s an amazing experience. As I’ve said, I’ve done it myself, I now speak Spanish fluently, and it’s just…it’s so rewarding. And people really appreciate it if you can go up to them, being a foreigner, and speak to them, y’know, in their own language. It’s..er..it’s a great experience. How long did it …how long did it take you to feel comfortable with Spanish? Erm..it took me to be..to be comfortable I’d say about 8 months, and to be fluent it took me a year, just over a year. Erm…so, I mean, it..er..it sounds a long time, but..erm.. it’s definitely, definitely worth it and you can easily, I mean, just to improve your level, you can do that in, y’know, in just a few weeks. As long as you kind of immerse yourself in it, as I’ve said. Most of my students don’t have the luxury to go long term, they tend to go maybe over the summer, maybe for..for the Easter break or Christmas break. And I always… I strongly recommend it, and I always say that maybe a month in England, if you’re not speaking Spanish, is probably worth at least..erm.. a term, two terms of study here in Spain. Exactly, even..even a couple of weeks the amount you can get…’cos it’s not just the course you can do, it’s…it’s the time in the afternoon, your activities speaking in English with other people, you go back to your family, it’s just a…such an intensive ..erm.. The going shopping, the going to the cinema …speaking…asking for directions in the street…. Everything …yeah Exactly No the…even a week, y’know, I mean the longer you can go the better, but if it’s a week, if it’s two weeks, if it’s a month, you’ll, I mean, you’ll.. every student sees the..the major progress that you can make even in such a short time. Definitely. Do your schools offer week..erm..erm..courses? Because on…on the Internet they seem to be two-week minimum. Yeah, no…we do offer …I mean, as..as you said,..as you said that you recommend a month, we do recommend at least two weeks, ‘cos a week doesn’t really give you that much time even to settle in, but..erm…we do offer special, especially for professionals..erm..intensive courses for a week, ‘cos a lot of, y’know, people working might not have even two weeks to spare for English. So what we normally try to do for the week-long courses is make it very intensive, maybe up to 30 even 40 lessons a week..erm..and just really immerse yourself in the language to make it worthwhile. Absolutely, it takes more than a week to get used to the English breakfasts! Yeah, you’ll be…yeah..you’ll just get used to them and you won’t get used to missing them, so you have to be at least two weeks, exactly! Hay información en castellano sobre viajar en Gran Bretaña, EEUU y Irlanda en la sección de recursos de La Mansión del Inglés: http://www.mansioningles.com/Recursos.htm http://www.mansioningles.net/formulario/inglesextranjero.htm
Help - Ayuda to come across = encontrar(se) to turn out = resultar to fix up = arreglar loads of = (a lot of, much/many) montones, toneladas rewarding = gratificante on the up = (getting better, improving) subiendo to hurt = doler, herir, lastimarse to break out = evadirse, escaparse gonna = going to to go abroad = irse al extranjero close knit = unido to settle in = instalarse, adaptarse to hang in there = aguantar, tener paciencia, no darse por vencida to check out = echar un vistazo airport pick up = buscada, recogida del aeropuerto foreigner = extranjera/o to be worth it/to be worthwhile = valer la pena to immerse = sumergir 'cos = because
Direct download: Lucy_Interview_Study_English_Abroad.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 5:04pm CEST |
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Wed, 9 March 2011
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. Hello! How are you? I’m great. Thank you very much for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for March 2011. Yes the year is 2011 and not 2010 as I said last month. I’m sorry. Thank you for correcting me in your emails. So, now I know what year I’m in, let’s start this month’s podcast. En el nivel básico este mes hemos tenido más vocabulario agrupado por temas, por ejemplo el vocabulario de comida – food, la bebida – drinks, la ropa – clothes. Quidado con la pronciación de clothes. No se dice Xcloth-esX, se dice clothes. Repeat – clothes. “I like shopping for clothes.” “I love your clothes.” “Where do you buy your clothes?” Ok, listen and repeat the vocabulary groups and the words. Escucha y repite los grupos y las palabras: The first group was days – days of the week – los días de la semana. Listen and repeat. Escucha y repite: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. How do you say martes in English? - ¿Como se dice martes? – Tuesday. - ¿Y jueves? – Thusday. Repeat Thursday. Which day is before (antes) Saturday? – Friday. Which day is after (despues) Tuesday? - Wednesday. Good! The next group was professions or jobs – las professions – Listen and repeat: nurse, accountant, lawyer, engineer, teacher, doctor, taxi driver, waiter, plumber (fontanero). Hay una lista extensa de las profesiones en la sección de vocabulario en mansioningles.com Next was the countries group - Italy, Canada, Germany, Holland - and then drinks – coke, wine – there’s red wine and white wine (vino tinto, vino blanco) red wine, white wine – French wine, Italian wine, Chile makes very good wine, and of course the wonderful Rioja wine from Spain. Water can be mineral water or still water – sin gas – mineral water or still water or fizzy water – con gas. Repeat “fizzy”. “I’d like mineral water, please.” – “I’d like fizzy water, please.” and of course beer. A can of beer. – una lata – a glass of beer – un vaso – a bottle of beer – una botella. Can you think of more drinks? What about tea? Or milk – leche. Cold milk - ¿como se dice? – leche fria – hot milk – leche caliente. One of my favourite drinks is hot chocolate, especially in the winter. There are alcoholic drinks: whisky, vodka, brandy, brandy es cognac. Rum – ron, and gin - gin is ginebra The food group – la comida – was next. ¿Cómo se dice queso? – cheese – ¿pan? – bread - ¿Arroz? – rice – ¿huevos? - eggs. What about ¿pescado? – fish – ¿carne? – meat – ¿fruta? – fruit - ¿verduras? – vegetables. La palabra vegetables normalmente lleva 3 silabas. Lo más fuerte es la primera. Escucha: VEGetebles. Repite: VEGetebles - VEGetables. What’s this Group? - ¿Qué es este grupo? Liverpool, Lyon, Milan, Sydney, Chicago, Shanghai, Rome, Istanbul, Dublin. – they are all cities. The months of the year – los meses del año – start with…. January. Listen and repeat: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. Good! How many rooms in the house do you know in English? - ¿Cuantos habataciones en la casa sabes decir en ingles? ¿Qué es cocina? – kitchen, repeat – kitchen – ¿El cuarto de bañao? – bathroom – ¿El váter? – toilet – toalet en el ingles británico or bathroom en el ingles Americano. Ropa - ¿Qué ropa puedes nombrar en inglés? What’s camisa? Shirt; ¿camiseta? - T-shirt; ¿pantalones? – trousers . trousers en el inglés británico y pants en el inglés Americano. What’s ¿Falda? – skirt; ¿guantes? – gloves; ¿calcetines? – socks; ¿abrigo? – coat; ¿vestido? – dress; ¿traje? – suit; ¿zapatos? – shoes; ¿chandal? – tracksuit. The last Group – el último grupo was family. ¿Como se dice madre? – mum or mother; ¿padre? – dad or father – ¿hermana y hermano? – sister and brother. – ¿tio and tia? – aunt and uncle. – ¿sobrino and sobrina? – niece is sobrina repeat niece and sobrino is nephew – nephew. Next we studied asking questions – Luego hemos practicado las preguntas. Escucha y repite las preguntas para practicar la pronunciación y la entonación. Escucha y repite: 1. What’s your name? 2. How do you spell it? 3. Where are you from? 4. What’s your address? 5. How old are you? 6. Are you a student? 7. What’s your job? 8. What’s your email address? In the intermediate section this month, we studied parts of the body. Listen and try to say the word before I do. Then repeat the word to practise pronunciation: What do you use when you listen to music and when you hear people speaking? - your ears. What’s inside your head and is used to think with? your brain. Ok, these are in your mouth and you use them to bite and chew food. Bite is morder and chew – masticar. The answer? your teeth. Giraffes have very long ones. Neck These are thin pieces of skin that cover your eyes when you close them; your eyelids – eyelids. You use these to smile and kiss someone with. Your lips. You have ten of these on your feet. These are your toes. On your hands, you have eight what? Fingers – dedos de mano and two…. thumbs – I think thumb is pulgar in Spanish? ¿Dedo gordo? OK, what is inside your mouth and you use it to taste food? your tongue. The spelling of tongue is strange; T-O-N-G-U-E – tongue. The organ inside you which pumps blood around your body is your…. heart. The two joints that connect your feet to your legs are your…. ankles. Don’t confuse ankle – tobillo with uncle – tío. Repeat; ankle – uncle. These two joints are in the middle of your legs and they are your knees, with a silent ‘K’ repeat – knees. The two joints in the middle of your arms are your elbows. and finally, the part of your body where you would wear a watch is your wrist. Also in the intermediate section, there was a word formation exercise. We can take a root word, for example the adjective definite - definitivo, seguro and change it by adding prefixes (prefijos) and suffixes (sufijos). A prefix changes the meaning of the word. So if you add -in to definite you get the opposite – indefinite. You change the word family if you change the suffix. So, the adjective definite becomes an adverb if you add –ly. Definitely. “I’ll definitely see you tomorrow.” The verb to increase means to go up. Property prices are increasing. What’s the opposite of to increase? It’s to decrease. Prices are decreasing. They’re going down. Many adverbs are made by adding –LY For example slow – slowly; beautiful – beautifully; dangerous – dangerously. Increase is the same. “It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to find a job.” “She’s playing increasingly well.” An experienced player has experience. What’s the opposite of experienced? – inexperienced. Short is an adjective; a short film, a short holiday. The verb of short is to shorten with -en. To make something shorter you shorten it. “My mum shortened my new trousers.” Deaf D-E-A-F is an adjective and the verb is to deafen. We were deafened by the noise. Sharp (afilado) is another adjective that adds -en to make it a verb, so to sharpen. “This knife isn’t very sharp. You need to sharpen it.” What’s the English for the adjective fuerte? – strong. This coffee’s a bit strong. What’s the noun of strong? It’s strength. How do you spell it? S-T-R-E-N-G-T-H. So, the verb is to strengthen, in Spanish fortalecer o reforzar. “This piece of wood will strengthen the table.” To recognise in Spanish is reconocer. “I recognised him from the party last week.” What’s the noun of recognise? - recognition. – and the adjective? recognisable – the opposite of recognisable is unrecognisable. “So many years had passed since I’d seen her that she was totally unrecognisable to me.” What’s avoid in Spanish? – evitar – “I saw her in the street but she avoided me.” What’s the adjective? – avoidable. “It’s an avoidable situation. You can avoid it.” And the opposite of avoidable is…. unavoidable. “I’m sorry I was late for the meeting. It was unavoidable. I was unavoidably delayed.” The opposite of expensive is…. cheap or inexpensive. “We had quite an inexpensive holiday. The flights were really cheap.” Response is a noun. A response is a reply or a reaction to something - una respuesta. What’s the verb of response? To respond - and the adjective? – responsive. “There is a very responsive operating system in this mobile phone.” So, what’s the opposite of responsive? – unresponsive. Responsibility is also a noun. To take responsibility. “I took full responsibility for the mistakes in the report.” The adjective unlikely means improbable, poco probable “They’re unlikely to agree.” – es poco probable que acepten. Collocations include highly and most. For example: “It’s most unlikely – it’s highly unlikely” – es muy poco probable. Repeat: It’s highly unlikely – “It’s highly unlikely he’ll sign the contract.” Es poco probable que aparezca ahora – “It's unlikely that he'll turn up now.” Gratitude is a noun. What’s the adjective? grateful. “I’m very grateful for your help.” Do you know the opposite? – ungrateful. “She’s the most ungrateful person I know.” Last month, on Facebook, Knelitaz (I hope I pronounced you name correctly) asked about the difference in pronunciation between sang and sung – the 2nd and 3rd forms of the verb to sing – cantar. Well, the 2nd form, sang, has the /a/ sound like in cat, hat, sat etc. The 3rd form, sung, has the /u/ sound like in cut, up, cup etc. Repeat: sing sang sung. There are other irregular verbs that have the same sounds. Listen and repeat: nadar – to swim – swim, swam, swum – llamar - to ring – ring, rang, rung – beber – to drink, drink, drank, drank – cantar – to sing – sing, sang, sung – empezer – to begin –begin, begin, begun – hundir – to sink – sink, sank, sunk. Thanks very much for your question Knelitaz, and I hope I’ve pronounced your name correctly. The advanced section this month practised money vocabulary and words connected to lies and deception. Don’t forget that in English we say to tell a lie not say a lie. If you tell a fib F-I-B it’s a small lie and if you tell a whopper it’s huge! If you are taken in by someone you’re fooled by them – engañado. ‘I was completely taken in by her.’ A hoax is an engaño. “The whole situation that John described turned out to be a hoax” A con is timo in Spanish. A conman or con artist in Spanish is estafador or timador. – ‘They thought he was a Wall Street genius but he was really a world class con artist.’ On the subject of money, if a person is rolling in it they have a lot of money – and I mean a lot of money – ‘He’s absolutely rolling in it’, and this expression implies a touch of envy. When you want to save, you put money aside or to one side. “I’m putting some of my salary to one side for my daughter’s 16th birthday party.” If you’ve got money to burn, you’ve got so much money that you can waste some of it and spend it on silly things. ‘I’ve got money to burn.” (I haven’t really!) If you save up for a rainy day, you save for a time in the future when you might need a bit of extra cash. “I’ve got a couple of thousand put aside for a rainy day.” Notice the “up” in save up. “What are you saving up for?” - “I’m saving up for my Christmas holiday.” In the business section there were some telephone expressions. For example, devolver la llamada a alguien can be to phone someone back, or to ring someone back or to call someone back. Call someone is more common in American English and ring or phone someone is more common in British English. Also on the telephone, we say “This is…” not X”I am”X. ‘Hello, this is Simon’, or “Simon speaking.” You can also say “It’s..”. - “Hello, it’s George, is Maria there?” To connect someone on the phone is to put them through. If you phone a large company, you may hear, “Just a second please, I’m putting you through.” Or “Hold the line please and I’ll put you through when she’s free.” To hold the line means to wait – esperar. You may hear, “Please hold” or “Please hold on”. You can say “Can you put me through to the manager?” or “Please put me through to the sales department.” A salary is usually paid every month by bank transfer, and a wage is often paid in cash weekly or even daily. For example. builders, manual workers and workers who don’t pay tax are often paid cash wage. Fee F-E-E can be honorarios, a doctor’s fee or a lawyer’s fee, or el precio de entrada. “How much is the entrance fee?” And when you register for a course you pay a fee – una matrícula o inscripción. – “Have you paid the course fees yet?” “Are the fees expensive for a private school?” Charge is cargo or precio in Spanish. – “There is no charge for the service” - no se cobra por el servicio, el servicio es gratis. – “Free of charge” or “Without charge”- , gratis, sin cargo – “At no extra charge” - Sin cargo adicional And you’ll also be pleased to know that there is on charge for this podcast. But we do ask you to have a look at our cd collection at mansioningles.com. Just click the banner of cds on the right hand side of the home page and you can see the details and prices of all our cds. You can also follow us on Twitter, just search for MansionTwit, and don’t forget to join our growing community of more than 10,000 students and teachers on our Facebook fan page. Search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés. Thanks again and we’ll see you next month. Bye!
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The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit.
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Wed, 23 February 2011
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. Podcast Transcription Hello! How are you? I’m fine. Thank you for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for February 2011. En el nivel básico este mes hemos tenido vocabulario en distintos grupos como los adjetivos, los idiomas, los colores etc. Escucha y repite los grupos y las palabras: adjectives – small; big; cheap; expensive; strong; weak ordinal numbers (los numeros ordinales) – first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth. Su habitación esta en el septimo planta. - Your room is on the 7th floor. Repeat: the 7th floor - on the 7th floor - Your room is on the 7th floor. - Vivo en la segunda planta. - I live on the 2nd floor. Repeat: the 2nd floor – on the 2nd floor - I live on the 2nd floor Next was the preposition group – las preposiciónes. ¿Te acuerdas de las preposiciones? - Do you remember any prepositions? – on – en español “en” “ponlo en la mesa o ponlo sobre la mesa – put it on the table - put it on the table. Repeat: on the table – put it – put it – put it on – los sonidos se juntan. No se dice “put it on” se dice “putiton”. Repeat: put it on – put it on the table. La preposición in también puede significar “en” for example en Japón – in Japan – Está en una reunión, está reunido – He’s in a meeting. Repeat: a meeting – in a – in a meeting – He’s in a meeting. Between – entre, entre 80 y 100 invitados. - Between 80 and 100 guests – Nada podrá separarnos – nothing can come between us. The preposition at – No me llames a la oficina. - Don’t phone me at the office – me sonrió. - He smiled at me. Another group (otro grupo) was surnames – apellidos. Tu nombre de pila, in English, is your first name. Repeat: first name. What’s your first name o What’s your name? Your apellido is your family name or surname. Repeat: surname. The next group was colours. Listen to the colours in Spanish and say the English translation before I do. Escucha a los colores en español y di la traducción en inglés antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo? Rojo – red; rosa – pink: verde – green; marrón – brown, negro – black; amarillo – yellow; blanco – white; azúl – blue; naranja – orange Los verbos auxiliares – auxiliary verbs. Repite: Do – Where do you live? - Can – can you speak Spanish? – does – Where does your husband work? – Have – Have you been to London? Los verbos principales – speak – hablar – play – jugar – write – escribir – eat – comer etc. What are the four seasons in English? - ¿Qué son los cuatro estaciones en ingés? ¿Invierno? – winter, ¿verano? – summer, ¿primavera? – spring, and ¿otoño? – autumno or fall. Se dice autumn A-U-T-U-M-N en el inglés Británico y fall – F-A-L-L en el inglés americano. Another Group was languages. A person from Spain speaks Spanish. A person from England speaks English. A person from Italy? Speaks Italian. What does a person from Sweden speak? Swedish. Someone from Germany speaks German. A person from France speaks French. Someone from Russia speaks Russian and someone from Holland speaks Dutch. A person from Brazil speaks Portuguese, and so does someone from Portugal. Another group was public buildings – los edificios publicos. ¿Como se dice la oficina de correos en ingles? How do you say correos en inglés? It’s the post office. Repeat: The post office. Excuse me, where’s the post office? La comisaría, la estación de policía is the police station. Repeat: The police station. Excuse me, where’s the police station? Ayuntamiento is the town hall. Repeat: the town hall La biblioteca – the library Repeat: the library. Excuse me where’s the library? El hospital - The hospital. Repeat: Hospital. ?Donde esta el hospital? Where’s the hospital? Please take me to the hospital. Next we studied a bit of grammar – También hemos practicado un poco de gramática. Escucha y repite las frases para practicar la pronunciación y la entonación. Escucha y repite: Whose is this iPod? Whose – de quién - Whose is this iPod? iPod = iPod, iPad = iPad It’s mine. – Es mio - It’s mine. His sister is 23 years old. She’s 23. No se dice X”she has 23”X eso es Spanglish. Ella tiene 23 años – “She’s 23” or “She’s 23 years old.” Repeat: “She’s 23” “She’s 23 years old.” I’m 47. How old are you? - How old are you? Repeat: How old are you? Who’s that woman? El “who” y el “is” se juntan – Who’s. !Ojo¡ - de quién whose – W-H-O-S-E y la contraciónd de “Who is” = who’s – W-H-O’-S la pronunciation es la misma. Repeat: Who’s that woman? - She’s David’s boss. Have you ever been to Italy? - ¿alguna vez has estado en Italia? – Repeat: Have you ever…Have you ever been…Have you ever been to France? Nota que se dice TO France y no XinX France. Repeat: Have you ever been to Paris? Have you ever been to Rome? Have you ever been to Greece? Have you ever been to Scotland? Yes, I have. No, I haven’t. Pepito hates going to the beach. Despues de los verbos hate = odiar, love = querer, amar, like = gustar etc, es común poner un gerundio. Repeat: I hate going to the beach; I love cooking at the weekend; I like listening to music. What did you do last night? Repeat: Last night – do last night – didyou – didyou – What didyou - What did you do last night? I’m a vegetarian. Vegetarian tiene 5 silabas Escucha: ve-ge-TA-ri-an. ¿Qué silaba lleva el stress? Qué se oye lo más fuerte? vegetarian. Es la tercera – the third syllable. Listen and repeat: ve-ge-TA-ri-an - ve-ge-TA-ri-an Are you a vegetarian? I’m a vegetarian. I don’t want any meat. No quiero carne – Repeat: meat - any meat. - want any meat. - don’t want any meat. - I don’t want any meat. - I don’t want any meat. What would you like to drink? Repeat: drink - to drink (no se dice ‘too’, se dice ‘te’. Repite: to drink - like to drink? – would - would you - What would you - What would you like to drink? - What would you like to drink? I’ll have a beer, please. Repeat: – a beer - I’ll have a beer - I’ll have a beer -I’ll have a beer, please. - I’ll have a Coke, please. - I’ll have a whiskey, please. - I’ll have a glass of wine, please. In the intermediate section this month, we studied some common collocations. Listen and repeat to practise pronunciation. To make a cancellation means to cancel (cancelar). I’d like to make a cancellation. Hello, I’m phoning to make a cancellation. To make certain of something means to check that something is correct – to make sure. – I just wanted to make certain. I’d like to make absolutely certain that it will be ready on Tuesday. To take a chance means to try something risky (correr un riesgo) I’ll take a chance. I’m not sure he’ll be in his office, but I’ll take a chance. You’re taking a chance flying with Ryan Air you know! To make a claim – reclamar. I’d like to make a claim. If you want to make a claim, please fill in this form. To make a complaint means quejarse “I’d like to make a complaint. Can I speak to the manager? Excuse me, who should I speak to to make a complaint? To make a concession (una concesión). I think we should make a concession and meet them halfway. To make contact with someone means to establish communication with them. They made contact with us by email. Have you made contact with him yet? To make demands on someone means exigir. In my opinion, they’re making excessive demands. They’re making a lot of demands on us. To make a discovery is to discover something. She made a wonderful discovery last week. Scientists have made an important discovery. To make an enquiry means to ask. Excuse me, I’d like to make an enquiry. Hello, I’m calling to make some enquiries about your new products. Also in the intermediate section, we looked at ‘ed’ and ‘ing’ adjectives. Bored and boring can both be adjectives. This podcast is really boring. So how do you feel if the podcast is boring? You feel bored. You’re bored by the podcast. So think of the –ed adjective as passive, and the –ing adjective as active because it does something to you. The film is really interesting. If the film is interesting you are…….interested. If the film is frightening, you are…. frightened, etc. Listen and repeat: The film was boring. I was bored. I felt really relaxed. The massage was relaxing. We were totally satisfied. The meal was very satisfying. I was so annoyed. It was very annoying. The music was enchanting. We were absolutely enchanted. I was disgusted. The kitchen was disgusting. I was very amused. The film was really amusing. We felt quite depressed. The news was very depressing. I was moved by the story. It was so moving. I felt terrified. It was a terrifying situation. I’m really annoyed with my neighbour. He’s very…….annoying. I was disgusted when he picked his nose during the interview. It was a disgusting thing to do. I feel completely relaxed after I meditate. Meditation is so relaxing. I was depressed for months after my grandmother died. Death is so depressing. Oswaldo asked a pronunciation question on Facebook recently. His question was “on't listen for the ‘t’, the /t/ sound, at the end of can’t because it isn't always pronounced clearly. Listen for the vowel sound (el sonido vocal). 'Can' has a short vowel sound (like the /æ/ in 'cat' or the /ə/ sound, the 'er' at the end of 'mother', ‘father’, ‘sister’, ‘teacher’, ‘brother’ etc.). 'Can't' has a long vowel sound (like the /ɑː/ in 'car'). Of course, pronunciation changes with different accents (American, Australian, Scottish etc), but I believe it’s easier to listen for the vowel sound in can and can’t than the final ‘t’ in can’t. Listen to some sentences and say if you hear the positive ‘can’ - puedo or the negative ‘can’t’ – no puedo.1. I can’t hear you (can’t - negative)2. I can see you on Friday. (can – positive)3. Pepito can’t speak Russian. (can’t - negative)4. My dad can’t use computers very well. (can’t - negative)5. He can write emails, though. (can – positive)6. We can meet up with you for lunch next Sunday. (can – positive)We hoped you enjoyed the song by Paul Simon in the advanced section this month. There was a grammar exercise, too. Listen and repeat the following sentences. I went to the optician to have my glasses fitted. The causative ‘have’. You don’t fit your glasses yourself, do you? No you have them fitted by an optician. Do you fill your own teeth? No, you have a tooth filled (a filling is un empaste). Some people have their flat cleaned, they have their car washed or serviced (a car service es una revisión del coche), some people have their clothes dry cleaned, they may have their ears pierced, or have their flat painted, their rugs cleaned and most people don’t cut their own hair, they have their hair cut. You can also use get instead of have; I must get my hair cut. I should get my car serviced this month. Clothes fit you. Fit is size and suit, the verb S-U-I T is when it looks good on you. Maybe the shirt is your size so it fits you. But perhaps the colour or the style is not right for you so it doesn’t suit you. I’ve always wanted to take up scuba diving. The phrasal verb to take up means to start doing something new, a hobby or a sport. I’m thinking of taking up digital photography. Is there anything new you’d like to take up? Personally, I’ve always wanted to take up skiing. I’ve never been skiing. Scuba diving is buceo in Spanish. SCUBA is an acronym. It stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. It makes no difference to me whether we go out tonight or not. – It makes no difference - da lo mismo, es igual – It makes no difference. It makes no difference to me where we eat. I don’t care - It makes no difference - It makes no difference what you wear. We saw quite a few wild animals when we went to Kenya. Quite a few – bastantes. It took me quite a few hours. – There were quite a few mistakes. – We went to quite a few different cities. To wait for someone. - He’s late as usual. I don't think we should wait for him. If you wait on someone you do things for them, like a waiter or waitress. – server a alguién. - “Make your own bloody sandwich. I’m not gonna wait on you!” Are you going in for the competition? To go in for a competition means presentarse a un concurso. I’m going in for a dancing competition. Of course if you go in for a competition you take part in a competition. To take part in something = participar Now, listen and repeat these expressions and sentences from the business English section: To be made redundant means to lose your job, bit it’s not your fault – no tienes la culpa – it’s not because you’re a bad employee. Many people are losing their jobs at the moment because of the economic crisis. Compamies are cutting back – reducing – their workforce or staff (personal, plantilla) My brother-in-law was made redundant from a company in the UK 12 years ago. He got a lot of redundancy money (indemnización). He took voluntary redundancy (retiro voluntario). If you are a bad worker; always late, sleeping at your desk, taking too many days off sick etc, you are likely to be sacked or fired. You may get the sack. Repeat: He was sacked – He got the sack – He was fired – He lost his job – He was made redundant – He was laid off. To be hired means to be given a job. He was hired by a software company. The phrasal verb to take on has a similar meaning. Ford have taken on 300 new employees. To be taken on - contratado – to take on = contratar - Our school has taken on 12 new teachers this year. To finish a letter or an email in a very formal way, use Yours faithfully if you don’t know the name of the person you are writing to. Use Yours sincerely if you know the person’s name. So Dear Mr. Smith – Yours sincerely. Dear Sir or Madam – Yours faithfully. Dear John Williams – Yours sincerely. The way I remember this is “Never be sincere with a person you don’t know.” You can be faithful, but don’t be sincere if you don’t know their name. Of course, if the letter is informal, you have many possibilities. Best wishes, All the best, Regards, Kind regards, Best regards etc. remember the comma. All of these are neutral. Then, Lots of love, Kisses, Take care, Much love, Hugs (abrazos), are for your closest friends and family. When you meet someone for the first time in a formal situation like a business meeting or a job interview, say ‘How do you do’ - ‘How do you do’ - . If someone says ‘How do you do” to you, the correct reply is “How do you do.”, The same. It’s just something you say, like “Encantado” in Spanish. “Nice to meet you”, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” and “Pleased to meet you” are also acceptable. “What’s up?”, “How’s it hanging, dude?” and other informal greetings are not suitable in a formal situation. To pick someone up means recoger or buscar. - I'll pick you up at the airport - Te iré a recoger al aeropuerto. What’s the opposite of to pick someone up in this context? …..to drop someone off – dejar or entregar - I'll drop you off at your house, - Te dejaré en casa – Can you drop off the report at my flat tomorrow? - I’ll drop you off at your hotel. Can you pick me up at the airport and drop me off at my hotel? He dropped me off at the station. To pick up can also mean ligar con algn. I picked up a great looking girl in a bar last night. She tried to pick me up. 'I'm afraid I have a bad line' means that the telephone connection is bad. If someone asks you to hold the line, they want you to wait - esperar. “Please hold the line, sir.” –“Would you like to hold?” When you’re making a presentation, use words like Firstly, secondly, after that, finally etc to signpost your presentation. To signpost means indicar, señalizar or maybe destacar. You want to tell your audience where they are in your presentation. You don’t want to lose your audience. Here’s an example: Firstly, let me remind you that you can buy a Business English cd from our website at mansioningles.com. It costs 34 euros and it’s full of business vocabulary, listening exercises and business expressions. Secondly, I’d like you to know that we have many other fantastic cds for sale on our product page. Just click the cd icon on the right hand side of our homepage. Thirdly, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at MansionTwit and also join our growing community of teachers and students on Facebook. Search for La Mansión del Inglés. Finally, I’d like to thank you for listening and for downloading this podcast, and I hope you all have a great month. So, until next month take care, Bye for now!
Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de febrero aquí.
Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí.
Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí.
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 music by Ben Othman from his album Intellectuel. Creative Commons licence from Jamendo.com
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Tue, 22 February 2011
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. Podcast Transcription Hello, and thank you for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for January 2011. Happy New Year to all of you and your families. Wow another year, 2011. Time passes so fast. Time flies – el tiempo pasa volando. En el nivel básico este mes hemos tenido vocabulario del viaje. Escucha algunas palabras en español y intenta decir la traducción en inglés antes que lo digo yo. Llego repite las palabras para practicar la pronunciación: Recepción = Reception habitación individual = A single room. - I’d like a single room. Please. habitación doble = A double room. - A double room for 3 nights. planta baja = The ground floor. - It’s on the ground floor. el ascensor = The lift (lift es en el inglés británico. ¿Sabes como se dice ascensor en el inglés americano? = elevator . Repeat: – elevator). Excuse me, where’s the elevator? - Excuse me, where’s the lift? registrarse = To check in – Excuse me, I’d like to check in. Where can I check in, please? la llave = The key. Could I have the room key? bolsas,. Equipaje = bags – These are my bags servicio de habitaciones = Room service. Do you have room service? Is there room service? pagar y marcharse = To check out. When do we have to check out? What time do we have to check out? deletrear = to spell – can you spell your name, please? How do you spell that? firmar = to sign – please sign here – por favor firma aquí – would you sign here, please? En el dialogo del hotel, el recepcionista dice “Here’s your key. It’s room 396, on the third floor.” – the third floor = la tercera planta. Third es un número ordinal. Escucha y repite más números ordinales en inglés: One - first Two - second Three - third Four – fourth Five – fifth Six - sixth Seven – seventh Eight – eighth Llego añadas ‘th’ al final de cada número – nine – ninth, ten – tenth etc. Hasta el viente – twenty – twentieth. - twenty-one - twenty-first twenty-two - twenty-second twenty-three – twenty-third. Los dificiles son los primeros 3 – first, second, third. Repeat: first, second, third. Los demas terminan en ‘th’ Escucha y repite las frases del ejercicio de gramática. Nota la pronunciación de las contracciones: Where’s he from? – Where is = where’s – Where’s he from? What’s that? – What’s = what is - What is that? = What’s that? It’s a key – It is a key – It’s a key Holland, Greece and Portugal are European countries - European countries - are European countries - Holland, Greece and Portugal - Holland, Greece and Portugal are European countries Is she David’s girlfriend? – David’s girlfriend – la ‘s’ en David’s no es una contraction es la ‘s’ possesivo. La novia de David = David’s girlfriend. – Is she? - Is she David’s girlfriend? What does she do? – do – she do – What does…? - What does she do? She’s a housewife. – She’s = she is – she’s – She’s a housewife - She’s a housewife What does she do? - She’s a housewife I really like listening to rap music. – rap music – listening to – nota la preposición con el verbo listen – listen TO. – like listening to - I like listening to rap music. - I really like listening to rap music. “really” es para intensificar. I like = me gusta. I really like = me gusta muchisimo. Repeat: I really like listening to rap music. My girlfriend’s angry – My girlfriend is angry - girlfriend’s angry – My girlfriend’s angry. I’m always late. – late – always late – I’m – I am – I’m – I’m always late. I usually go to work on foot – on foot – go to work – go to work on foot – I usually go to work on foot She can’t speak English very well. – very well – speak English – estas dos palabras se juntan – no se dice “speak English” se dice speakenglish – repeat: speakenglish. – speak English very well – She can’t – she cannot – she can’t - She can’t speak English very well - She can’t speak English very well. In the intermediate section this month, we studied some prepositions. Prepositions can be difficult in English because sometimes they’re different from the Spanish translation. The good news is if you make a mistake with a preposition, people will probably still understand you. But of course, you want to get it right, so listen and repeat the following prepositions of time: Use at for the time of day (precise time): at 7 o´clock – Repeat: at 7 o´clock at noon (noon=mediodia) at noon at lunchtime at 10.30 at the moment at sunset at midnight Use on for days and dates: on Monday on Fridays on New Year's Eve on my birthday on 17th January on Christmas Day Use in for longer periods (for months/years…etc) in January – Repeat: in January in 2007 in the Ice Age in the summer in the 19th century in the past/in the future Be careful, because we do not use at, in or on. with the words: last, next, every and this. Repeat: We went to Madrid last March She’s coming back next Thursday. We stay with my parents every Christmas. I'll call you this afternoon. In the advanced section of this month’s newsletter, we practised the passive. Listen to the following active sentences and try to change them to the passive before you hear them. Ready? They found him guilty. - He was found guilty. They gave him a pair of sunglasses. - He was given a pair of sunglasses. What will they pay you for making the video? - What will you be paid for making the video? Someone should teach that bastard a lesson. - That bastard should be taught a lesson! They had denied the father access to his son. - The father had been denied access to his son. The order will be sent to you next week. - You will be sent the order next week. They felt the CEO was doing valuable work. - The CEO was felt to be doing valuable work. They gave the woman artificial respiration. - The woman was given artificial respiration. Someone has left me an inheritance of 200,000 euros. - I have been left an inheritance of 200,000 euros. We must give job creation priority over everything else. - Job creation must be given priority over everything else. I wish they had taught me more English at school. - I wish I had been taught more English at school. OK, very good! Now, listen and repeat these expressions and sentences from the business English section: He's worked at BMW for nearly seven years. Use present perfect to connect the past to the present. He started at BMW seven years ago and he’s working there now. So he’s worked or he’s been working there nearly seven years. Repeat: – nearly seven years - He's worked at BMW for nearly seven years. Three point seven nine - I think you say ‘coma’ in Spanish, but in English it’s ‘point’. Sales have risen by 6.8 percent this year. Repeat: Sales have risen by 6.8 percent this year. After “mind”, “don’t mind”, “doesn’t mind” etc, use a gerund: I don’t mind = no me importa/no me molesta - He doesn't mind helping you” no se dice Xto help”. Repeat: I don’t mind helping you. - I don’t mind helping you. - Do you mind meeting at 6? - Do you mind meeting at 6? - Do you mind meeting at 6? - He doesn’t mind eating Chinese food. - He doesn’t mind eating Chinese food. He demanded to see the manager. After the verb demand we use an infinitive – I demand to see the manager – I demand to receive a refund – I demand to talk to your supervisor. I hope to hear from you soon. After the verb ‘to hope’ use an infinitive. With most verbs that refer to the future we use an infinitive after the verb. ‘Intend’, for example – I intend to meet with him as soon as I can. Another verb is ‘to plan’. ‘To plan’ usually speaks about the future, future plans, so infinitive. - I plan to go to New York. Another verb is ‘to expect’. I expect to hear from them soon. - I expect to hear from them soon. I'll look into this. – the phrasal verb “to look into” means examiner o investigar algo – The police are looking into the death of her husband.” “My boss is looking into my request for a rise in salary.” To grow – G-R-O-W is a verb. It means crecer. The noun is growth – G-R-O-W-T-H. There’s been steady growth in sales. Repeat: There’s been steady growth. There’s been dramatic growth. There’s been little growth. I suggest postponing our meeting until next week. After the verb “suggest” use a gerund Repeat: I suggest sending him an email.” “He suggests selling the car.” “I didn’t catch that” means I didn't understand or I didn’t hear. Repeat: I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. - I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. An extension is an internal telephone number. When you phone a large company, you may have to give an extension number. “Can I have extension 395, please” Can you put me through to extension 438, please? You can say “I'm afraid I don't see your point.” to disagree formally and politely with someone. Repeat: I'm afraid I don't see your point.” I'm sorry, I don't see your point.” Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. And don’t forget 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 special packs to save you money. 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. Search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés. Thanks again and we’ll see you next month. Bye!
Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de enero aquí.
Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí. Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí. 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
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Tue, 22 February 2011
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. Podcast Transcription Hello, and thank you for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for December 2010. Merry Christmas to you and your families from all of us here at La Mansión del Inglés. Yes, Christmas is coming and the turkeys are getting fat. Actually, so am I with all the lovely Spanish food that I’ve been eating and all the Christmas dinners and lunches I’ve been going to. - Estoy poniendo mucho peso – I’m putting on weight. Maybe I’ll start the diet next year, in 2011. – to start a diet or go on a diet – hacer regimen. I’m on a diet – Estoy de regimen. Let’s begin with some Christmas vocabulary – vamos a empezar con un poco de vocabulario de navidad Regalos de Navidad are Christmas presents. Repeat: Christmas presents. Another word for present is gift. G-I-F-T gift. I bought my mum a Play Station as a Christmas gift this year. I hope she likes it. If she doesn’t, I’ll have to play with it. ¿Cómo se dice – how do you say – Arbol de Navidad in English? Christmas tree. And ¿muñeco de nieve? – a snowman – repeat: snowman. Reno is reindeer. How many reindeer does Santa have? Santa has 9 reindeer, I think. When Santa brings presents, or gifts, he goes down the chimney – chimenea – repeat: He goes down the chimney. And he puts presents in calcetines de navidad or in English “Christmas stockings”. Repeat: Christmas stockings. I never had a Christmas stocking when I was a child. But my parents used to leave one present at the bottom of my bed for me to open when I woke up on Christmas morning. Later, when I was older, I discovered this was to keep me quiet and occupied while my parents slept late in bed! We studied irregular verbs this year (hemos estudiado este año los verbos irregulares) and in the newsletter (el cuaderno) this month there was a small test. Listen and repeat the sentences: Escucha y repite las siguientes frases: Who drank all the beer? – beer – all the – all the beer – Who drank? - Who drank all the beer? Have you done your homework? Have you done…..¿Has hecho…? Have you done - your homework – tus deberes – Have you done your homework? Did you do your homework? – Did you do….? ¿Hiciste….? - Did you do your homework? What presents did you get for Christmas? For – for – for Christmas – What presents – did you get – did you get - What presents did you get for Christmas? My grandmother usually gives me money for Christmas. – gives me money –gives me money for Christmas. - My grandmother usually gives me money for Christmas. Where were… - Where were you on Christmas day? ¿Es un poco difícil decir no? Where were – where – Where were – Where were you? – My God, where were you? – Where were you? - Where were you on Christmas day? - Where were you last night? Where were you yesterday? – Where were you all day? – Where were you on Christmas Day? I don’t usually drive at Christmas. (Remember - ¡OJO! Con los adverbios de frecuencia como usually, always, sometimes, never etc. se van justo antes del verbo principal y van mucho con el tiempo presente simple The present simple tense for habits por los habitos – Repeat: I always drink alcohol at Christmas - I always drink alcohol at Christmas - so I never drive. - so I never drive. - I often take the bus - I often take the bus - and I sometimes go by train. - and I sometimes go by train. - I don’t usually drive at Christmas. - I don’t usually drive at Christmas. What has Father Christmas brought you this year? - What has Father Christmas brought you this year? Repeat: – bring – brought – brought – brought you – brought you this year – Father Christmas brought you this year - What has Father Christmas brought you this year? - Who do you eat Christmas dinner with? Repeat: Who do you…? – Who do you eat…? – Who do you eat dinner with? - Who do you eat Christmas dinner with? I’m sorry, I forgot your present. – Forget – forgot….and……. forgotten! Have you forgotten - ¿Has olvidado? – Did you forget? – ¿olvidaste? – repeat: I forgot your present. - I’m sorry – I’m so sorry, I forget your present. John Lennon died on 8th December 1980. 30 years later and, unfortunately, war is not over and the world is not at peace. If John were alive today, I’m sure he would be working and singing and trying for peace. His music lives on. I put the link (el enlace) to Maroon 5 and not to John because the sound quality is a bit better and I think it’s a little easier for you to understand the lyrics (las letras). Don’t try to cook the Christmas fruitcake in the cuaderno, at least not with the whisky - por lo menos no con el whisky. It was a joke. – fue un chiste - Do you remember the vocabulary? What was ‘level’ – a level teaspoon = a ras – a level teaspoon, or a level tablespoon or a level cup (in American English). What was ‘to beat’ B – E – A- T = batir – beat the eggs Fluffy was suave y esponjoso – For example, a fluffy pillow or a fluffy teddy bear – fluffy. Stuck is atascado – I got stuck in the lift yesterday. The mixture is stuck to the sides of the bowl. To sift was tamizar – sift the flour (la harina) or sift the sugar. To strain S-T-R-A-I-N was filtrar / escurrir – to strain the liquid. Bueno, aquí viene el anuncio, y sin vergüenza porque si no sabes que comprar para las personas importantes en tu vida este navidad, ¿porque no compras un cd de la mansion del ingles? o 2? o 3cds? , o el pack de regalo por solo 99 euros y ahorras 112 euros. Recebes todos nuestros cds en el pack completo y pagamos nosotros los gastos de envio, y también recibes un cd de regalo. Además, solo por navidad, y solo para le gente que apuntan al cuaderno mensual, ofrecemos un descuento de 5 euros. ¿Qué?, ¿No es bastante regalo para las personas importantes en tu vida? Pues compre un pack de ahorro para la gente que no son importantes, pero cómpralo. Puedes encontrar los detalles de todos nuestros cds y comprar los en nuestra página mansioningles.com. Haz click, cliquear, al lado derecha de la página en la imagen de los cds. OK, listen and repeat the following Christmas words and expressions. Escucha y repite: una tarjeta de Navidad - a Christmas card - a Christmas card adornos de Navidad - Christmas decorations - Christmas decorations un villancico - Christmas carol - Christmas carol el acebo - holly - holly la comida de Navidad - Christmas dinner - Christmas dinner un calendario de Adviento - Advent calendar – an advent calendar un pesebre - a crib – C-R-I-B, crib or a manger – M-A-N-G-E-R, manger la misa del gallo - Midnight Mass - Midnight Mass, los Reyes Magos - the Three Kings or the Three Wise Men - wise W-I-S-E means sabio the noun is wisdom – W-I-S-D-O-M, wisdom. “I admire him for his great wisdom”. un belén in English is a nativity scene - a nativity scene (Belén in English, the town, is Bethlehem) un pastor – a shepherd - a shepherd. A person who looks after sheep. ¡OJO! – Sheep is the same in singular as plural. 1 sheep, 2 sheep, 3 sheep, A lot of sheep. A shepherd looks after sheep. And finally un burro - a donkey, D-O-N-K-E-Y – donkey. OK, now repeat the dias festivos – the holidays What’s Nochebuena? Do you remember? - Christmas Eve - Christmas Eve Día de navidad - Christmas Day - Christmas Day diciembre 26, December 26th is called – Boxing Day - Boxing Day. Why Boxing Day? I think because years ago rich people gave their servants presents the day after Christmas. They gave them a box. In the box was probably a small gift or some money. So Boxing Day, the day that rich people gave their servants a box for Christmas. ¿Nochevieja? What’s Nochevieja? - New Year's Eve - New Year's Eve El día de año nuevo - New Year's Day And finally, la Noche de Reyes - Twelfth Night That’s it for this month and for this year! Have a very Merry Christmas, a wonderful holiday with your family and friends, and a Happy New Year. We’ll be back again in January with another Mansion Ingles podcast from Mansioningles.com
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Tue, 22 February 2011
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. Podcast Transcription Hello and welcome to another Mansion Ingles Podcast from mansioningles.com. Recorded for November 2010. We started this month’s Newsletter with some more essential English expressions – Hemos empezado el cuaderno de este mes con más frases claves que vas a necesitar para defenderte en inglés- Escucha y repite las expresiones. Repite varios veces y intenta imitar la entonación. Buenos días - Good morning – good morning ¿Qué tal?- How are you? – howa – howa you? – howa you? Bien, gracias. - Fine, thanks. – fine thanks Hasta luego - See you later Hay 3 palabras SEE YOU LATER, pero el YOU se dice muy débil. Escucha y repite: ya – ya - seeya – later – later – seeya – seeya later – seeya later ¿Cómo te llamas? - What’s your name? Hay 4 palabras – WHAT IS YOUR NAME. – el WHAT y el IS se juntan escucha: WHAT IS = what’s repeat: what’s. YOUR se dice muy débil. Escucha: ye - repeat: ye. What’s ye – what’s ye name? Ahora con entonación. Repite: What’s ye name? - What’s ye name? Me llamo……… - My name’s….. Hay 3 palabras MY NAME IS…., pero normalmente el IS se junta con el NAME para hacer una contracción. Escucha y repite: My name is = my name’s – My name’s Craig. Hi, my name’s Juan. Hello, my name’s Luis. What’s your name? Mucho gusto. - Nice to meet you - Nice to meet you. Aquí hay 4 palabras NICE TO MEET YOU. El TO se dice como /te/. Escucha – Nicete - Nicete meet you. Escucha y repite: meet you – nicete – nicete meet you – nice to meet you. Good! – ¡bueno! - Let’s move on to our list of irregular verbs. Vamos a seguir con la lista de verbos irregulares. La última lista de los verbos irregulares comunes. ¿Qué es el verbo coger en inglés? Bueno, en America latino creo que tiene una significa vulgar como to fuck en ingles. Creo que se usa el verbo agarrar para no crear confusión. Pero en España, coger normalmente es To take Escucha y repite: take – took –taken– con ‘n’. Repeat: take – took –taken. Please take some cake. I took the last train home. – Have you taken your holiday yet? Dar y coger = give and take. Next is the verb enseñar – to teach repeat: teach – taught – taught. El sonido vocal es /au/ - taught. Repite: taught – como bought, caught and thought. I taught tennis years ago. Have you taught children? How many hours do you teach? El verbo decir is to tell. Listen; tell – told – told. Los verbos Tell y say tiene casi la misma significación. La diferencia es que un objeto directo sigue inmediatamente al verbo tell. Tell me – tell us etc. El verbo say nunca sigue un objeto. Es normalmente seguido por that (que) o el estilo indirecto. - I told him my name = Yo le conte a el mi nombre. - He told us your name = El nos contó tu nombre. - Then she said "I love you" = Entonces ella dijo "te amo". ¿Qué es el verbo pensar en ingles? - to think. Y qué es el pasado del verbo think? – It’s thought. El mismo sonido vocal del verbo taught. Repite: think – thought – thought - /au/ thought. I thought about you – Pensé en ti. – I don’t think so – no lo creo. Repite: I don’t think so. – Do you think so? I don’t think so. What are you thinking about? ¿Qué estas pensando? I’ve thought about you a lot. Next is the verb understand or entender in Spanish. Repeat: understand – understood - understood. I’m sorry I don’t understand – lo siento, no entiendo – I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Do you understand? – I understood you perfectly. Do you understand Spanish? Yes, I understand, but I can’t speak it. How do you say despertarse in English? To wake – aunque to wake es un verbo principal, es más común decir to wake up. Wake up es un verbo frasal - a phrasal verb – un verbo compuesto con dos partes. Repite: wake up – el pasado es woke up. What time did you wake up today? I woke up at 7. What time do you usually wake up? So, wake – woke – woken Repite: wake – woke – woken. Good! Now, llevar puesto in English is to wear. Repite: wear –wore–worn. Escucha y repite los sonido vocales: /ea/ wear – /or/ - wore - /or/ worn – con ‘N’. What do you wear for work? What did you wear yesterday? I wore my brown shirt. What are you wearing tonight? ¿Qué te vas a poner esta noche? – Have you worn your new shoes yet? Next is the verb ganar en ingles – to win. Repeat: win – won – won. He usually wins. Did you win the competition? Manchester United won yesterday. How much money have you won? ¡Ojo! Se utiliza el verbo ganar en español para hablar del trabajo y los sueldos. ¿Cuánto ganas al mes? Pero en inglés hay otro verbo – to earn. How much money do you earn? I earn a good salary – gano un buen sueldo. She earns a lot of money. So earn money and win a competition. Earn a good salary and win the lottery. And finally, the verb escribir – write – W-R-I-T-E. Repeat: write – wrote – written. Otra vez write – wrote – written. I write a lot of emails. How do you write your name? I wrote to my insurance company. How many words have you written? I’m thinking of writing a book. ¡Muy bien! Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir la segunda y tercera forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo? take teach tell think understand wake wear win write took taught told thought understood woke wore won wrote taken taught told thought understood woken worn won written Very good! Well done! ¡Muy bien! – y con el verbo to write hemos terminado nuestra lista de los verbo irregulares en inglés. El mes que viene vamos hacer un pequeño ‘test’ de los verbos que hemos estudiado durante los últimos meses, así que si quieres repasar los verbos, consulta los cuadernos anteriores en www.cuadernodeingles.com hemos empezado estudiar los verbos irregulares en el mes de abril 2010. Ahora escucha y repite algunas frases con los verbos de este mes en un contexto. Si te resulta más fácil, utiliza el botón de pausa en tu reproductor de mp3. Primero, revisamos un poco de vocabulario ¿Como se dice despertar en inglés? – to wake up ¿Cómo se dice correo electronico? – email ¿Cómo se dice galleta en inglés? – biscuit – y en el inglés Americano? – cookie. ¿Cómo se dice el precio? – the price ¿Cómo se dice camisa? - shirt Ahora escucha y repite las frases: What time did you wake up this morning? - What time did you wake up this morning? Did Barcelona win yesterday? - Did Barcelona win yesterday? I don’t write many emails. - I don’t write many emails. Who took the last biscuit? - Who took the last biscuit? Have you taught Tai Chi before? - Have you taught Tai Chi before? Did she tell you the price? - Did she tell you the price? I’m sorry, I don’t understand - I’m sorry, I don’t understand I don’t think so. - I don’t think so. I can’t wear that shirt, I wore it yesterday. - I can’t wear that shirt, I wore it yesterday. Moving on to the intermediate section, and in last month’s podcast, in October, we looked at strong or extreme adjectives - freezing, filthy, enormous, exhausted etc. Remember? Now, this month, let’s look at the order of adjectives before a noun – el orden de los adjetivos. Remember, it’s the opposite to Spanish. Not the car red – el coche o carro rojo, but the red car. Not the girl beautiful – la chica guapa o linda, but the beautiful girl. And the order of adjectives before a noun in English is stricter – más estricto, riguroso – than in Spanish. The order is as follows: First, adjectives of opinion like nice, ugly, beautiful- your opinion. then size or weight (tamaño o peso): heavy, large, small, then age; young, old ancient etc. then shape like round square, rectangular. Followed by colour, then origin – where the noun is from, for example German or Canadian, then it’s the material of the thing; like metal, plastic, wooden etc. and finally the noun. One way to remember this is by using the acronym OSASHCORM. Repeat: OSASHCORM. The O is opinion, the S is size (or weight), the A is age, the SH is shape, the C is colour, the OR is origin and the M is material. OSASHCORM. Say it again with me after 3 one – two – three – OSASHCORM! Listen and repeat the sentences: An old blue sweater An expensive Japanese car. A sexy young lady. A boring English grammar book. The last two months. A heavy black laptop. A pretty French village. An ugly heavy Swiss watch. A terrible new film. A lovely white plastic table. A funny little man. Gorgeous big brown eyes. Also in the intermediate section, we looked at some more common collocations. Especially those words that like to collocate, or go together, with verbs make, take, do and have. So, let’s see what you remember. If you make an appointment you organise a meeting with other people. I need to make an appointment to see my doctor. You can’t see him without an appointment. To have an appointment means you are going to participate in a meeting with other people. First you make an appointment, then you have an appointment. Don’t confuse appointment with arrangement. To make an appointment is pedir una cita o hora. An arrangement is more un arreglo o un plan: What are your arrangements? - ¿cuáles son tus planes? Both go together with the verb make, so you make arrangements and you make appointments. Have you made arrangements for Friday afternoon? To have an argument with someone means to argue with that person. You can also say to have a row (with someone). To have a row is an informal British English expression. Quite common: “I had a row with my girlfriend and now we’re not speaking to each other.” Row, is a verb and a noun. “Listen to the neighbours rowing next door.” – to have a row with someone. – To have an argument. To make a breakthrough means to make an important discovery. “Scientists have made a breakthrough in regenerative medicine.” To take care means to be careful. I often say “take care” when I say goodbye to people I care about. Especially on the phone when I end a conversation. “Yeah, it was really great to talk to you. Speak to you soon. Take care. Bye.” Maybe in Spanish you say ¡Cuídate! Or ¡Que te vaya bien! – Take care! - Take care of someone or something means cuidar a. “My mum’s getting old now so my sister takes care of her.” - It’s similar to the phrasal verb to look after. To take care of can also mean ocuparse de algo. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of all the emails and you make the coffee.” If you take charge of something you assume authority over it. Imagine the police arriving at an accident scene. “Ok, stand back. We’re taking charge now.” Who’s in charge?” ¿Quien manda aquí” – To take charge – encargarse o hacerse cargo. “Who’s going to take charge of the office when Pepito leaves?” To make conversation means to start a conversation with someone with no other aim than to talk and break the silence. To have a conversation means to converse, or to speak. To make a deal (in British English) or do a deal (in American English) means to make a contract with someone. The businessman took his partner out to lunch to make a deal. - Le citó con la idea de hacer un negocio con él. To make a decision, or take a decision, is to decide. “Have you made a decision about selling your flat?” To do an operation means to operate medically on someone. “Who’s doing the operation?” To take an opportunity is similar to taking advantage of a situation. To make an opportunity means to arrange things to your advantage. And to have an opportunity means to be at the right place at the right time to do something advantageous. In the business English section this month, we practised asking people to do things in the office. When you ask people to do things in English, the intonation is very important. We use rising and falling intonation to be more polite. Listen: Can I phone you later? Repeat: Can I phone you later? Listen: Would you mind phoning me later? Repeat: Would you mind phoning me later? Listen: Please make sure you phone me later. Repeat: Please make sure you phone me later. Listen: Could you phone me later? Repeat: Could you phone me later? Now you try… Listen: Please don’t forget to phone me later. Repeat: Please don’t forget to phone me later. Last month, in the advanced section, we practised animal idioms. This month we continue with the animal theme to look at collective nouns. Words used to describe groups of animals. Listen and repeat to practise pronunciation: a swarm of bees a litter of kittens / puppies a pride lions a pack of wolves a flock of birds or sheep a band of gorillas a colony of ants a bed of oysters a school of whales a swarm of insects a herd of cattle a shoal of fish Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. And 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
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Fri, 21 January 2011
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. Podcast Transcription Hello and welcome to another Mansion Ingles Podcast from mansioningles.com. Recorded for October 2010. We started this month’s Newsletter with some essential English expressions – Hemos empezado el cuaderno de este mes con algunas frases claves - Escucha y repite las expresiones del inglés imprescindibles Lo siento, no entiendo - Sorry, I don’t understand – Repeat: understand – I don’t understand – Sorry, I don’t understand. ¿Puede repetir eso, por favor? - Can you repeat that, please? - repeat that, please – can you - Can you repeat that, please? ¿Cómo se dice …x….. en Inglés? - How do you say…..x…..in English? - Repeat: In English – How do you say…? - How do you say billete in English? – billete is ticket. How do you say cambio in English? Cambio is change. How do you say vino in English? Vino is wine. ¿Qué significa ? - What does it mean? Repeat: What does it mean? ¿Qué significa este ? - What does this mean? Repeat: What does this mean? - ¿Qué significa eso? - What does that mean? Repeat: What does that mean? ¿Cómo se escribe eso? - How do you spell that? How do you spell that? How do you spell your name? - How do you spell the hotel? - How do you spell the station? - How do you spell the restaurant? ¿Cómo se pronuncia? - How do you pronounce it? - Repeat: pronounce it? - How do you? - How do you pronounce it? - How do you pronounce your name? - How do you pronounce the hotel? – Excuse me. How do you pronounce this? Let’s move on to our list of irregular verbs. Vamos a seguir con la lista de verbos irregulares. ¿Qué es el verbo mostrar en inglés? To show Escucha y repite: show – showed – shown – con ‘n’. Can you show me the report? Have I shown you my new mobile phone? She showed me her flat. It’s horrible! Next is the verb cerrar – to shut repeat: shut – shut – shut. The spelling is the same. Se escribe las tres formas igual S-H-U-T. It’s similar to the verb to close. Es parecido al verbo to close. “Close the door” – “Shut the door” Do you mind if I shut the window? Shut up! - ¡Cállate! Cantar is to sing. Listen; sing – sang – sung. Los mismos sonidos vocales que ring – rang - rung. Repite: /I/ /a/ /u/ - again: /I/ /a/ /u/ - ring – rang – rung.- sing – sang – sung. Do you sing? - ¿cantas? I sang when I was at school. I love singing. I haven’t sung for years. Otro verbo irregular con los mismos sonidos vocales es el verbo hundir – to sink repeat sink – sank – sunk. I can’t swim, I usually sink to the bottom. When did the Titanic sink? El verbo sentarse in English is to sit. What’s the past of the verb to sit? – sat. Repeat: sit – sat – sat. Can I sit here? Do you mind if I sit here? Please sit down. Tal vez es más común decir “have a seat” seat – S-E-A-T - es el sustantivo – a seat. Escucha la pronunciación /eh/ have a – have a seat - Repeat: Have a seat – Please have a seat - please, have a seat – please, sit down. – I sat down and he asked me some questions. Next is the verb to sleep or dormir in Spanish. Repeat: sleep – slept – slept. How many hours do you sleep? Did you sleep well – ¿Has dormido bien? – How did you sleep? ¿Como has dormido? He slept with her! I’ve slept in some very strange places. How do you say hablar in English? To speak – Repite: speak – spoke – spoken. Otra vez – again – speak – spoke – spoken. Do you speak Spanish? I spoke to her yesterday. Have you spoken to him today? I’m sorry, I don’t speak English. El verbo gastar is to spend. Repeat: Spend – spent – spent. How much do you spend on cigarettes? How much have you spent on clothes this month? I spent a lot of money last week. Spend a lot of money. You can also spend time – pasar el tiempo. Do you spend much time with your sister? How do you spend your free time? – your free time – tu tiempo libre. – How do you spend your free time? Next is the verb robar – to steal. Steal – stole – stolen. Repeat: Steal – stole – stolen. He steals cars. - He stole my mobile phone. Have you ever stolen anything? And finally, the verb nadar – to swim. Repeat: Swim – swam – swum. The same vowel sounds as drink – drank – drunk. Sing – sang – sung. Ring – rang – rung etc. Repeat: swim – swam – swum. I swim everyday. I swim in the sea. I love swimming. I swam 2000 metres this morning. I haven’t swum in the sea for years. ¡Muy bien! Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir la segunda y tercera forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo? show showed – shown shut shut – shut sing sang – sung sink sank – sunk sit sat – sat sleep slept – slept speak spoke – spoken spend spent – spent steal stole – stolen swim swam - swum We also studied questions words this month, using question words like where, who, how many, how much etc. También este mes hemos estudiado como hacer las preguntas en ingles. Escucha y repite – listen and repeat:
In the intermediate section this month, we looked at strong (or extreme) adjectives. fantastic, wonderful, amazing, enormous, awesome, starving, tiny are strong adjectives. Listen to some strong adjectives and try to say the base, or normal, adjective before I do. Entonces, primero escucha el adjetivo extremo, y luego tú dices el adjetivo base del mismo antes que lo digo yo. Are you ready? 1. Filthy - dirty 2. Freezing - cold 3. Enormous - big 4. Starving - hungry 5. Great - good 6. Tiny - small 7. Awful - bad 8. Furious - angry 9. Delicious - tasty 10. Terrified - afraid 11. Boiling - hot 12. Exhausted - tired We can only use absolutely with a strong adjective. For example “This video game is absolutely fantastic." We can only use very with a base adjective. For example “This chicken tastes very good.” However, we can use really with base and strong adjectives. For example “You look really tired.” Or “That film was really awful.” Listen and repeat The weather was freezing. Her brother is absolutely enormous Your bedroom is absolutely filthy The film was terrible La Mansion del Ingles has become a very big website. It-s huge. The bar was really crowded He was absolutely furious. Your car is really tiny Today’s absolutely boiling outside Also in the intermediate section, we looked at some common collocations. Let’s see what you remember. OK, action. Is it do action, ‘make’ action or ‘take’ action? – take action. We need to take action immediately. We must do something now. When are you going to take action? Is it ‘do’, ‘take’ or ‘make’ advantage of someone or something? – that’s right, take advantage. You should take advantage of these podcasts to improve your English aprovechar algo. You’re taking advantage of the situation. Now, do you ‘do’, ‘make’ or ‘take’ arrangements? – You make arrangements. I can’t see you tonight. I’ve made arrangements. Have you made arrangements for next weekend? The next expression was to make an attempt. To make an attempt means to try to do something. An attempt es un intento.I made an attempt at conversation - intenté entablar conversación. When you apply to do something, you can say that you make an application. I made an application for a job in Dublin. To make amends means reparar el daño - to make amends to somebody – I think in Spanish it’s desagraviar a algn - we must make amends for having scratched his car - debemos compensar por haberle rayado el coche What’s Dar luz in English? Is it ‘make’ a baby, ‘do’ a baby, or ‘have’ a baby? – It’s have a baby. My sister’s having a baby in the spring. My wife just had her first child. Now, is it ‘make’ the bed, or ‘do’ the bed? – Make the bed. Remember, most of the things in the house we do except the bed. We do the shopping, we do the cooking, we do the cleaning, we do the ironing, the dishes etc. but we make the bed. To make a bid for something is pujar en subasta. The word bid – B-I-D is a verb and a noun. To bid for something or to make a bid for something. They bid twenty pounds for a painting - ofrecieron veinte libras por un cuadro. ¿Como se dice hacer negocios en inglés? – Is it ‘make’ or ‘do’? It’s do. We do business and we make money. And, speaking of doing business, this month we looked at some expressions you could use for giving presentations in English. When you start your presentation, the first thing you should say is “hello” and introduce yourself. For example: “Good morning everyone.” Repeat: “Good morning everyone.” Listen: “Let me introduce myself. My name’s Craig.” Repeat: “Let me introduce myself. My name’s Craig” To speak about something the audience may already know, say: “As you all know…” or “I’m sure you are aware that…” Listen: “As you all know sales have dropped by 13%.” or “I’m sure you are aware that we need a new advertising campaign.” Repeat: “As you all know…….” “I’m sure you are aware that…….” When you show something visual say something like “Could I draw your attention to this graph.” Or “If you look at this diagram, …” or “Looking at this year’s profits, we can see here that…” Repeat: “Could I draw your attention to this graph.” “If you look at this diagram, …” “Looking at this year’s profits, we can see here that…” Your audience may want to ask you questions. Make them feel comfortable, by saying: “If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.” Repeat: “If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.” Now, perhaps you want the questions to be at the end of your presentation. Maybe you don’t want to be interrupted and distracted by questions during your presentation. So, you could say: “I’ll be happy to answer any questions at the end of my presentation. Repeat: “I’ll be happy to answer any questions at the end of my presentation.” When you finish your presentation, don’t forget to thank your audience. Say “Thank you very much. Any questions?” or “Well, that’s all I have to say. Thank you very much for your attention.” Moving on to the advanced section, we practised some animal idioms. We said that if a person is as slippery as a snake, then he, or she, should not be trusted. Slippery means resbaladizo, like a slippery floor, but for a person, it means escurridizo; que no es de fiar. A slippery person is untrustworthy. You cannot trust this person. He, or she, is slippery. As slippery as a snake. Repeat: As slippery as a snake. If you hear the expression it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, it means it was the final thing that pushed someone or something over the edge. Over the edge means sobre el límite or por encima del límite The straw that broke the camel's back is also the last thing you are willing to accept For example: "You broke a lot of rules, but stealing money from us was the straw that broke the camel's back." You can also say the last straw or the final straw. If you lead a dog's life, you have a terrible life, an unhappy existence. Her boss leads her a dogs life. And, if you make a monkey out of someone, you make a fool of them. Nobody makes a monkey out of me. If you hear the expression a leopard never changes its spots, it means that people never change. He was a liar at school, and he’s a liar now. A leopard never changes its spots. If you let the cat out of the bag, you tell something that was supposed to be a secret. Sandra and Bob are getting married but don’t let the cat out of the bag. They don’t want anyone to know yet. If you take the lion's share of something, you take or do the biggest bit. My husband does the lion’s share of the housework. I don’t do very much. To be foxed means to be confused. I don’t know why the manager sacked her. I’m completely foxed by it. Donkey work is hard or boring work. Why do I have to do all the donkey work while you get to do the interesting stuff? And finally, a lone wolf is a person who prefers to go without the company or assistance of others. Don’t expect him to work in a team, he’s a lone wolf. He works by himself. 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
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Aprende ingles con inglespodcast de La Mansión del Inglés-Learn English Free
Lecciones para aprender y mejorar tú inglés. English lessons to improve your grammar, vocabulary and listening skills.
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