WHO, WHO´S AND WHOSE

The MacMillan Dictionary language tips are a really helpful learning tool for English language learners. Their weekly tips draw our attention to very specific areas of difficulty in both vocabulary and grammar.

In this tip, they want to show us the difference between who, who's (= who is or who has), whose (=possessive pronoun).

Elearn Language learning also offers some explanations and gives some more examples.

Languageguide.org mainly focuses on the difference between who and whose, but their great asset is that they offer recorded audio files of all the examples.

University of Bristol allows us to do an online exercise to discrimate between Who's or Whose.

UNCHAINED MELODY

Hello class,
please look at this video to check your answers from the exercises we did in class!
Happy St. Valentine's and happy singing!

UNCHAINED MELODY BY THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS

CAN AND CAN'T

The pronunciation of can and can't is probably the best 
example of the difficulties of English pronunciation for Spanish people. The pronunciation of this (modal-auxiliary) verb presents these features:

- Pronunciation of  difficult individual sounds / æ / and /ə/ in can, /ɑ:/ in can't.

- Variations in the way the verbs are pronounced, depending on their position in the sentence: We only pronounce can as / kæn / in short answers, or at the end of a sentence or before a pause, or for emphasis:

A: Can you swim? B: Yes, I can. / kæn / (short answer)
A: Can you have it for Friday? B: I think I can, but I need ... / kæn / (before a pause)
A: Sue can't swim, she's too young. B: Of course she can swim. / kæn / (emphasis)
Can you come at six? /kən/
I can run faster than you. /kən/

- Ellision of sounds: the "t" in can't is very often not pronounced; the "a" in can is very often not pronounced when it is pronounced /ə/ .

- Stress: can't is always stressed, so speakers know if a sentence is affirmative or negative because of the stress on can't, not because they hear "t": I can't go (both "can't" and "go" take the stress)
When can is pronounced /kən/ is always unstressed, and the stress falls on the main verb: I can go. (only "go" takes the stress).

For Spanish speakers it is very difficult not to give stress to any words in a sentence, as our language gives the same stress to all the words. Consequently, when we use can in conversation it is sometimes very difficult for listeners to know if the sentence is affirmative (can) or negative (can't).

There are two tricks we can use to pronounce can in an unstressed position:

1) Omit the vowel sound and pronounce can quickly: I can go to the cinema  / ai kn 'gəu /
2) Make can part of the subject, as if they were the same word: I can go to the cinema / aikn 'gəu /

To complete the study of this difficult pronunciation point, you can watch these two videos from Accentworkshop.com. The first one is about the pronunciation of can, and the second about the pronunciation of can't.

MORE PRESENT SIMPLE EXERCISES

Hello guys? How are you doing? I hope you´re having a terrific weekend!

Please click on this link:

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/simple-present-exercises.html

to do some more exercises on the present tense. It's good review for your upcoming exam! You can do all of them, except for the last section

EASY CONVERSATIONS

Easy conversations for beginners offers elementary students (Básico 1 and Básico 2) the possibility of listening to dozens of short dialogues on everyday topics. 

The topics include daily life, school life, transportation, entertainment, dating, at the restaurant, sports, safety, travel, jobs, food, shopping, housing, vote and health.

http://www.eslfast.com/easydialogs/index.html

I would like to suggest this way of studying:

• Choose a dialogue.
• Listen to it.
• Look up any words or expressions you don't know.
• Listen to it, paying careful attention to pronunciation, and replaying words and sentences as often as necessary.
• Shadow-read: Try and read at the same pace as the recorded voices.
• Read the dialogue yourself.

CHRISTMAS PARTY PICS

COCONUT AND CARROT TRUFFLES

SALMOREJO CORDOBÉS

CHOCOLATE BONBONS

LEEK PUFF PASTRY

OMELETTE STUFFED ITALIAN PEPPERS

CHEESE AND PEAR MUFFINS

WHITE CHOCOLATE AND CHAMPAGNE TRUFFLES. THE WINNER!!!

CHEESE BREAD

BLACKBERRY BREAD

MARINATED SALMON CAKE

WILD RICE

SWEET POTATO AND CARROT CASSEROLE

3 CHOCOLATE CAKE

CHOCOLATE NOUGAT

CHEESE BALLS

SEAFOOD STUFFED PINEAPPLE

A CAMEL, A REINDEER AND A CRAZY TURKEY

CHRISTMAS VOCABULARY

Christmas is an interactive book by Mrs Haquet that shows us everything we need to know about Christmas:

• Christmas vocabulary
• Christmas traditions in several countries
• Christmas-related listening activities
• Christmas-related reading activities
• A carol
  
  

If you want to find out about Christmas, drop by Mrs Haquet's interactive book and you won't be disappointed.