Mansion Ingles Podcast November 2013 - Aprende gramática y vocabulario inglés

Hello once again and welcome to another Mansion Ingles podcast. This is podcast number 67 recorded for November 2013.

En el nivel básico practicamos los pronombres y los antónimos

En el nivel intermedio estudiamos los tiempos verbales y el vocabulario del cuerpo (parts of the body).

We practise some general vocabulary at advanced level, and also we help you with what to say in English in certain social situations There's also business vocabulary and a translation exercise, all to help you improve your English and take it to the next level.

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

Hemos recibido un comentario en iTunes de Carlos G - "Mil gracias por vuestro fantástico podcast, pero no hemos transcrito el contenido de los últimos podcasts. Os animo

a que lo hagais para poder seguir aprendiendo. Gracias a vosotros. Un abrazo."

Bueno Carlos, gracias por tu comentario. Si que publicamos la transcripción en los cuadernos mensuales, siempre los publicamos el mes siguiente. Es decir, puedes leer la transcripción de este podcast de noviembre en diciembre. Y no olvides que todos los cuadernos pasados están disponibles en www.cuadernodeingles.com/. También puedes ver las trascripciónes en mansioningles.libsyn.com/

Ok, vamos a empezar con el nivel básico y los pronombres de objeto. Do you remember the object pronouns in English? Vamos a repasarlos.

me - me repite: me

te - you - repite: you

lo - him - repite: him

la - her - repite: her

lo - it - repite: it

nos - us - repite: us

os - you - repite: you

los/las - them - repite: them

Escucha y repite las siguientes frases de ejemplo

Escucha: You're lovely! I really like you. repite: You're lovely! I really like you.

Escucha: He's not very friendly. I don't like him. repite: He's not very friendly. I don't like him.

Escucha: Are they talking to us? repite: Are they talking to us?

Escucha: Football's great! I love it. repite: Football's great! I love it.

Escucha: She's horrible. I don’t like her. repite: She's horrible. I don’t like her.

Escucha: I don't like vegetables. I hate them! repite: I don't like vegetables. I hate them!

Escucha: Homework? I hate it. repite: Homework? I hate it.

Escucha: Please give it to me. repite: Please give it to me

Escucha: Did they invite us? repite: Did they invite us?

Escucha: My neighbours are nice. I really like them. repite: My neighbours are nice. I really like them.

¡Muy bien! - Very good!

Ahora practicamos los antónimos. Escucha y intenta decir los antónimos antes que los digo yo. Luego, repítalos para practicar la pronunciación. Ready? - ¿Listo?

expensive - cheap repite: cheap

tall - short - repite: short

young - old - repite:  old

empty - full        - repite: full

fat - thin - repite:  thin 

happy - sad - repite: sad

Ok good, now moving on to the intermediate section, and in this month's cuaderno we looked at verb tenses. I'm going to read the examples we had and I want you to think which verb tense I'm using. For example, "I live in Valencia", which tense is live? Yes, present simple. What about, "I've been living in Valencia since 1997?" Well, that's present perfect continuous.

Listen : Take your umbrella with you in case it rains. - Present simple. The weather forecast said it'll get colder today.

Listen : I'm really sorry we haven't been in touch for so long. Since we moved to Barcelona, we've been very busy doing up our flat here. We tried to send you an email last month, but it came back to us so you must have changed your address.

Listen : We were going out to a pub quiz tonight, but we have just heard that it's been cancelled, so I think we'll just stay at home and watch a film instead.

Listen : Hey Maria! How are you? I haven't seen you for ages. You look great! What have you been doing since we last met?

Listen : We intended to go around Europe this summer, but my mother-in-law is sick, so I suppose we'll be staying at home.

Listen : I wish you had told me that you don't eat seafood. Let me make something else for you.

Moving on to the vocabulary part of the intermediate section, and we talked about parts of the body and what you did with them. For example, what do you do with your eyes? You see with your eyes. You can also look and watch. Look at something (look at that beautiful girl over there). And you can watch a game, watch TV, watch a film etc.

What do you do with your ears? You hear with your ears. You can also listen. Listen and look and watch are more active verbs. You actively listen to music or to another person. You actively watch a game of football. But hear and see are senses, sentidos.

So, what do you do with your nose. It's a verb and a noun, and another sense. You smell with your nose. You have a sense of smell. And what a wonderful sense it is! What's your favourite smell? flowers perhaps? or freshly baked bread? I like the smell of petrol, which is a bit strange, I know. And the smell of freshly cut grass. That's a smell I miss from the UK. There were public parks near where I used to live in London. But in Valencia there isn't a lot of grass around and it's usually full of dogs mess. My favourite smell though, has to be....chocolate!

Which part of the body do you kiss with? - You kiss with your lips. And what do you do with your teeth? Well you can bite (morder, in Spanish) and you can chew (masticar). If you need to chew a lot, for a long time, you can say the food is chewy. That's the adjective. Chewy. "The steak's nice, but it's a bit chewy".

What do you do with your hands and your fingers? - touch, which is another of the five senses, the sense of touch. Can you name the five senses? the sense of smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch. And of course, there is The Sixth Sense, which is a film starring Bruce Willis.

What do you think with? You think with your brain. And if you are a footballer, what do you do with your feet? Kick - to kick the ball, or kick another player if you play dirty.

Finally, which part of your body do you use to smile? Well, you can smile with your mouth, your lips and I believe you can also smile with your eyes. In fact, you can give a false smile with your mouth but it's very difficult to lie and smile with your eyes. Your eyes tell the truth. they are the window to the soul.

Siempre me ha gustado la idea de aprender inglés con videos. Por eso te recomendamos ABA English. Los videos de ABA English son muy profesionales y están muy bien hechos.

Además de las 144 clases gratuitas de gramática en vídeo, también tienes la posibilidad de probar la primera unidad de tu nivel (hay 6 niveles distintos) y realizar todas las secciones de esta unidad para probar su metodología única de aprendizaje. 

Tú aprendes inglés viendo películas cortas con subtítulos, que ya es un método muy eficaz para aprender inglés,  pero también actúas en estas películas! Es muy divertido! En la misma unidad realizas ejercicios de speaking y role play actuando en el diálogo del cortometraje que has visto!

Los cortometrajes, con situaciones de la vida real, son la base de cada unidad del curso de inglés. Llevan incorporada la tecnología de reconocimiento de voz propia. 

Echa un vistazo a los videos de ABA English.com. Puedes empezar los cursos gratis sin coste y además con apoyo en español.

Al empezar, tienes que facilitar una dirección de email y contestar algunas preguntas básicas, pero no es necesario que realices ningún pago. Pienso que si una empresa ofrece un producto gratis para probarlo es porque es bueno y la empresa cree en sus productos.

¡Regístrate hoy y aprende inglés gratis con video, en casa y a tu ritmo. ABA English.com! Pruébalo no tienes nada de perder.

In the advanced section this month, we looked at some vocabulary the first expression was bound to. To be bound to means ser seguro que.

Listen: Why don’t you email Pepito, he’s bound to have the meeting agenda. Repeat; he's bound to have it - she's bound to know the answer - We're bound to get lost! - I'm bound to make a mistake.

Listen: I have no idea where we arranged to meet them. I suppose they could conceivably be waiting at the hotel. conceivably means posiblemente - they could conceivably be waiting at the hotel - it's possible that they are waiting at the hotel. Repeat: conceivably - You could conceivably be wrong, you know. I may conceivably get the promotion.

Listen: We’re highly likely to be the leaders in our field this time next year. Highly likely means there's a very good chance. Repeat: It's highly likely. It's highly likely we'll go away for Christmas. It's highly likely he'll be late again.

Listen: You’re looking really tired! You can’t have had a very relaxing holiday. Can't is the opposite of must for possibility. It's Sunday. My parents always go out for lunch on Sunday. My wife phones my parents and there's no answer. I say, "They must be having lunch now." They must be having lunch now means I'm about 95% sure they are having lunch. I'm almost positive. The opposite is they can't be. My parents can't be at home. It's Sunday. They always go out. They can't be at home.

To put the modal verbs in the past you need to use have. Today is Monday. phone my mum and say, "you must have been having lunch when my wife phoned you." You can't have been at home.

Listen: There’s a slight possibility that you’ll get their answer before the weekend. A slight possibility is a very small possibility. Repeat: a slight possibility. There's a slight possibility. There's a slight possibility you'll hear from them. There's a slight possibility they'll get in touch before the weekend.

Listen: Pepito broke his leg last week so he couldn’t have played football at the weekend. - Another example of have putting a modal verb (couldn't) in the past. He couldn't have played. It wasn't possible that he played because he had broken his leg. Repeat: He couldn't have played - She couldn't have gone - We couldn't have known - You couldn't have seen me, I wasn't there.

In the advanced section this month, we also looked at what you should say in certain situations. Some of these little language chunks (trozos de lenguaje) can be difficult.

For example, someone says to you:

"I'm terribly sorry, I've just spilt red wine over this white cushion." cushion is cojín.

A possible answer, if it's your cushion, is "Can't be helped." or "It can't be helped", It's no one's fault, don't worry about it, it's ok. Nothing can be done to help the situation. Repeat: Can't be helped. - Someone says. "We're going to be late because of the heavy traffic", and you say....can't be helped. "Someone's says, "The shop's going to be closed by the time we get there." you say, "Can't be helped."

Another example is when someone says "How about lending me your new video camera for our holiday?"

If it's a brand new, expensive camera. And if, like me, you are very protective and illogically possessive of your technology gadgets, you could answer,  "No way!" (¡Ni hablar!)

Can I borrow your new car for the weekend? You say, "No way!". Someone says, "Can you lend me a couple of thousand euros to go to the casino?" you say, "No way!"

Someone says, "Sorry. I hope you didn't mind us putting on the stereo. We didn't know you were trying to work in here." You say:

Don't mind me! (No haces caso de mi)

Repeat: Don't mind me!

Someone says, "Do you mind if I use that computer?" you say. "Don't mind me. Help yourself. Don't mind me."

Someone makes a suggestion, like let's go out for dinner, let's rent a DVD, Why don't we go shopping this afternoon? We could go for a walk. You say,

Might as well. (¿porque no?, no hay otra cosa que hacer)

Repeat: might as well. - Shall we go out for a walk? - might as well. Do you want to go to the pub? might as well.

Let's go to the cinema - might as well.

If you don't apologise, I'll never talk to you again.

I couldn't care less. (¡Me da igual!, ¡Me da lo mismo!)

Repeat: I couldn't care less.

You can also forget the I and just say "Couldn't care less"

Are you watching this? Can I change the channel? - Couldn't care less.

You're going to be late for school - couldn't care less.

You can't go outside in that shirt, it's dirty. - I couldn't care less.

Listen: I think you should have a word with your boss and tell her how unhappy you are with the decisions she's been making.

I've got a good mind to. (No es mala idea, Creo que haría eso)

Repeat. I've got a good mind to.

You should report your neighbours to the police. - I've got a good mind to.

Why don't you complain to you boss about your long hours?

Do you know what? I've a good mind to! - Repeat: I've a good mind to.

 

In the Business English section this month we looked at some more business English vocabulary, and the first expression was to review a proposal - revisar una propuesta - Repeat: to review a proposal. I think we should review their proposal. Have you had time to review our proposal?

I think you should have a word with Pepito, he's not pulling his weight. No está haciendo lo que debe hacer. No está haciendo su parte. Repeat: pulling his weight. Are you pulling your weight? He's not pulling his weight, you know. To pull your weight means to work as hard as other people in a group - The rest of the team complained that Sarah wasn't pulling her weight.

A fixed amount of money charged for professional services is called a fee. F-E-E. Repeat: What is your fee? How much is your lawyer's fee? I think lawyer's fees are too high. Is there a fee for getting a driver's license?

Listen : We've reviewed your proposal, and there are one or two things we'd like to go over with you. To go over means to talk about (analizar, revisar). Repeat; to go over - We should go over these sales figures. Have you gone over the proposal? When do you want to go over the presentation?

After receiving a pay cut and having to work more hours, the employees took the union's advice and went on strike.  to go on strike hacer una huelga. Repeat: They've gone on strike. Why are they on strike' They're on strike for more pay. Are they on strike again? How long have they been on strike for?

Well, we're not on strike at La Mansión del Inglés. We're busy creating more material to help you improve your English. But we have reached the end of this podcast, but never fear/don't worry (never fear=no temas/no tengas miedo) we'll be back with you next month as usual with another podcast based on our monthly newsletter, our cuaderno de inglés mensual. Remember, you can listen to all our previous podcasts at mansioningles.com and of course on iTunes. And we have a new podcast called Aprender inglés con Reza y Craig en lo que hablo con mi amigo Reza, que también es profesor de inglés, sobre el vocabulario, la gramática y la pronunciación de inglés. Puedes encontrarlo también en iTunes.

Si te gustan nuestros podcasts, puedes ayudarnos con una corta reseña en iTunes contribuyendo así a que más personas puedan conocernos y escucharnos. Gracias a todos los que ya han escrito algún comentario. Thank you to all of you who are writing reviews.

Thank you very much for listening to this podcast, and for being part of the community of La Mansión del Inglés.

Remember, If you want to contact us you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés where you can ask questions, make comments and do exercises and practise your listening. Or you can send me an email to: [e-mail]. You can also follow us on Twitter where we tweet useful links to improve your English, English slang vocabulary, quotations and much more. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit.

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

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

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