Dates, months and years

Hello class! Please check out this video to review your dates! 

THE 12 DAYS OF XMAS

And your favorite one!

ROCKIN' AROUND THE XMAS TREE

Hello class!

This is for you to keep on singing!

TELLING THE TIME AND DESCRIBING PEOPLE

In our Real English series we touch on two different points today: how to tell the time in English and how to describe people's personality.

In the first video, several people answer the question What's the time?

Remember we can tell the time analogically or digitally. That way in British English:
8.05 five past eight [analogical] or eight (oh) five [digital]
8.10 ten past eight [analogical] or eight ten [digital]
8.15 (a) quarter past eight [analogical] or eight fifteen [digital]
8.30 half past eight [analogical] or eight thirty [digital]
8.35 twenty-five to nine [analogical] or eight thirty-five [digital]
8.45 (a) quarter to nine [analogical] or eight forty-five [digital]
8.50 ten to nine [analogical] or eight fifty [digital]
9.00 nine o'clock [analogical] or nine [digital]

In American English, after is often used instead of past:
6.10 ten past six (British English) / ten after six (American English)
Exception:
6.30 half past six (British English=American English)

And of or before or till instead of to.
2.35 twenty-five to three (British English / twenty-five of (or before or till) three (American English)

You can watch the same video with subtitles on the Real English site here and do an activity to practise the time on the Real English site here.

The second video helps us to revise some basic questions to find out personal information like What's your name?; Where are you from?; Can you introduce your friends? Yes, this is my daughter.

The video focuses on describing people's personality by answering the question Can you give me two or three adjectives that describe your mother?

Funnily enough, two weeks ago we dealt with descriptions in our Real English series when talking about astrological signs. That day we learnt a number of questions we can use to ask about someone's personality:
What are you like?
What kind of person are you?
Tell me about your personality.
Today we have learnt another question to find out the same information: Can you give me two or three adjectives that describe your mother?

You can watch the same video with subtitles on the Real English site here and do an activity to describe people on the Real English site here.

From My that´s English

XMAS RECIPES

HELLO CLASS!!

Please find some Xmas recipes here to help you for our party! 

Happy cooking!    

                              XMAS RECIPES HERE

PHONE NUMBERS AND PERSONAL QUESTIONS

Good afternoon class!
Please click on  PHONE NUMBERS, EXERCISE 1 and PHONE NUMBERS EXERCISE 2  to practise a bit more your listening skills.

Also, there is a part of the Oxford University Press website with easy dialogues for you to listen and practise. This one is about PERSONAL QUESTIONS.

Have fun!

THE ALPHABET AND SPELLING

HELLO GUYS!

In this installment of Real English videos the alphabet is dealt with. Watch the video to revise how to pronounce the alphabet.

Pay attention to the following:

As the speakers are American, they spell the letter Z as / zi: / and not / zed / as the British do.

The second speaker, Gillian (28"), gives us a very practical way to memorise the alphabet. She recites the alphabet according to the vowel sound the letter has:

/ei/ A H J K
/i:/ B C D E G P T V (Z)
/e/ F L M N S X Z
/ai/ I Y
/əʊ/ O
/u:/ Q U W
/a:/ R

Some of the speakers show a tendency to spell their names in groups of three letters, pausing for a split second to let the listener figure out the word being spelt.

You can watch the same video with subtitles on the Real English web page here.

Real English also provides this video to test our ability to understand words/names being spelt.

Again, you can watch the same video with subtitles on the Real English we page here.