English I Section 31: octubre 2012

viernes, 19 de octubre de 2012

Sentences with irregular nouns

In English grammar, there are regular nouns (that obey to certain rules when you transform them in their plural) and irregular nouns. The irregular nouns change completly, don't change at all or don't obey to any specific rule, here are some examples:

My child is in the school./ My children are in the school.

There is a mouse in the kitchen./There are mice in the kitchen.

I broke my feet riding bycicle./ I broke my foot riding bycicle.

The man in the room is making me nervous./ The men in the room are making me nervous.

The woman in my reading club is a very good friend of mine./The women in my reading club are very good friends of mine.

When I arrived home I had to change my clothes. (The noun "clothes" does not change in his singular and in his plural)

The fish we ordered was delicious. (The noun "fish" does not change in his singular and in his plural)

Yesterday at the mall I bought a pair of pants. (The noun "pants" does not change in his singular and in his plural)

Sentences with regular verbs in third person singular

I work everyday from 7 am to 4 pm./ She works everyday from 7 am to 4 pm.

When I come home everyday, my dog is waiting for me./ When she comes home everyday, her dog is waiting for her.

I go to my french course every saturday./ She goes to her french course every saturday.

Every night I watch a movie with my family./ Every night she watches a movie with her family.

You cry every time you see that movie./ He cries every time he sees that movie.

Your wife is in the kitchen./ Their wives are in the kitchen. (Plural noun)

I lay down in my bed when I do not feel good./ He lays down in his bed when he does not feel good.

Your banjo is broken./ Their banjos are broken. (Plural noun)

lunes, 15 de octubre de 2012

My daily routine

Hello, I'll describe you a normal day in my life. Normally, I wake up at 6:00 am and immediately I get up, I go to the bathroom and I brush my teeth, then I get dressed and comb my hair. Every day my grandmother makes my breakfast, so I grab it and I get in the car. Usually I leave my house at 6:30 am and I eat in the way to my university. I get to class at 6:50 am and my first class starts at 7:00 am, so I arrive early all the time. Usually I have two or three classes in the day, so I go home approximately at 1:00 pm. I always walk from the university to the bus stop in Santa Monica, and it takes me home. I arrive to my house normally at 2:30 pm, then I have lunch and the rest of the afternoon I take care of my nephew until my family gets home (often they arrive at 7:00 or 7:30 pm). When they arrive, we have dinner and we talk for a while and then my nephew goes to sleep at 8:30 pm, so I shower and then I start to do all my homework and I take some time to study. When I don't have any assignments to do, we all watch a movie and then I go to sleep normally at 11:00 pm.

Difference between adjectives and adverbs.

When you need to describe something, we use adjectives or adverbs, it depends. When we want to describe a verb (say how the action has been made) we use adverbs; however, if we're describing a noun, we use adjectives. To know the difference between one and other and their correct use in each case, we've found these videos that will make a lot easier to understand it.

Also, there are several kinds of adverbs and adjectives.

There are descriptive adjectives, adjectives of quantity, possessive adjectives, interrogative adjectives and demonstrative adjectives.

In the case of the adverbs, there are adverbs of time, adverbs of place, adverbs of manner, of degree or quantity, of frecuency, affirmative adverbs, adverbs of negation, interrogative adverbs and relative adverbs.

In this link, we can see how we can form adverbs from adjectives:

http://www.myenglishgrammar.com/list-4-forming-adverbs-from-adjectives.html

domingo, 14 de octubre de 2012

Rules for regular and irregular plurals of nouns

When you want to say the plural of a noun, in most cases all you have to do is add "s" at the end of the word, these are called regular plurals, for example:

Hand _____ Hands

Number _____ Numbers

Book _____ Books

Plant _____ Plants

Program _____ Programs

File _____ Files

Boyfriend _____ Boyfriends

Ambassador _____ Ambassadors

Exchange _____ Exchanges

There are also some plurals where you add "es" at the end of the word. We do this when it ends in s, x, z, ch, o or sh, for example:

Box _____ Boxes
Potato _____ Potatoes

Pitch _____ Pitches

Boss _____ Bosses
Volcano _____ Volcanoes

Bush _____ Bushes

Wish _____ Wishes

Buzz _____ Buzzes

Tax _____ Taxes
Hero _____ Heroes

Glass _____ Glasses

However, we need to be careful, because some words ended in "o", when we write the plural, we just have to add "s", like:

Disco _____ Discos

Photo _____ Photos

Piano _____ Pianos

There are nouns where the word ends in "consonant+y", in that case, you replace the "y" for "i" and add "es" at the end, for example:

Fly _____ Flies

Spy _____ Spies

Penny _____ Pennies

Baby _____ Babies

Candy _____ Candies

Sty _____ Sties

When the noun ends in "f", we replace the "f" for a "v" and then add "es" at the end of the word, for example:

Half _____ Halves

Wolf _____ Wolves

Loaf _____ Loaves

Shelf _____ Shelves

For the nouns ending in "ife", we replace the "f" for a "v" and add "s" at the end, for example:

Wife _____ Wives

Life _____ Lives

Knife _____ Knives

When the noun ends in "us", whe cange it for an "i", for example:

Cactus _____ Cacti

Focus _____ Foci

Nucleus _____ Nuclei

When the noun ends in "is", for the plural, we replace the "is" for "es", for example:

Analysis _____ Analises

Crisis _____ Crises

Thesis _____ Theses

When the noun ends in "on", all we have to do is replace the "on" for an "a", some examples are:

Phenomenon _____ Phenomena

Criterion _____ Criteria

There are special cases when the noun changes completely for his plural, like:

Person _____ People

Foot _____ Feet

Mouse _____ Mice

Man _____ Men

Thoot _____ Theet

And for last, there are nouns that remains the same when we say or write their plural, for example:

Salmon _____ Salmon

Sheep _____ Sheep

Deer _____ Deer

Fish _____ Fish

Tuna _____ Tuna

lunes, 8 de octubre de 2012

Introducing yourself...

When you meet someone you didn't know, you have to give some personal information about yourself. This is an example of an introduction:

You may also have to introduce someone else to a person, in that case, here's a video that shows how to introduce yourself and introduce others and give personal information in several situations.

The same words? There are differences!

When we're talking, there are similar words and sometimes we don't know the difference between them.

A very good example of this are:

Economy
Economics
Economic
Economical

This words have different meanings and they are used in different contexts. Here's some examples:

Economy: "Along the history, the world economy has had marked moments of crisis"

Economic: "Most international conflicts have as background an economic motivation"

Economics: "For Adam Smith, the objective of the studies of the economics sciences is the reason of the wealth of nations"

Economical: "The Central University of Venezuela is an economical university because it is public."

Ordinal and cardinal numbers

We use numbers in many situations of our lives, for example, when we have to say the hour, the date, our birthday, our phone number, distances, our age, our weight or height, prices (or any money account), when we do math exercices, sudoku games, etc.

However, there are two different ways to count, and they are used in different scenarios: with ordinal numbers and cardinal numbers.

Cardinal numbers: we use them in most situations and they go like this:

1	one	11	eleven	21	twenty-one	31	thirty-one
2	two	12	twelve	22	twenty-two	40	forty
3	three	13	thirteen	23	twenty-three	50	fifty
4	four	14	fourteen	24	twenty-four	60	sixty
5	five	15	fifteen	25	twenty-five	70	seventy
6	six	16	sixteen	26	twenty-six	80	eighty
7	seven	17	seventeen	27	twenty-seven	90	ninety
8	eight	18	eighteen	28	twenty-eight	100	a/one hundred
9	nine	19	nineteen	29	twenty-nine	1,000	a/one thousand
10	ten	20	twenty	30	thirty	1,000,000	a/one million

In this web page we can practice the writing of cardinal numbers. They ask us to spell the number they give us:

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/vocabulary/numbers/exercises?param=1001&type=cardinal

Ordinal numbers: they are less used than the cardinal numbers, and we use them to say dates, etc. They go like this:

first

eleventh

twenty-first

thirty-first

second

twelfth

twenty-second

fortieth

third

thirteenth

twenty-third

fiftieth

fourth

fourteenth

twenty-fourth

sixtieth

fifth

fifteenth

twenty-fifth

seventieth

sixth

sixteenth

twenty-sixth

eightieth

seventh

seventeenth

twenty-seventh

ninetieth

eighth

eighteenth

twenty-eighth

100

one hundredth

ninth

nineteenth

twenty-ninth

1,000

one thousandth

tenth

twentieth

thirtieth

1,000,000

one millionth

In this web page we can practice the writing of ordinal numbers. They ask us to spell the number they give us:

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/vocabulary/numbers/exercises?param=1001&type=ordinal

Also, there's another web page where we can listen the pronuntiation of both types of numbers:

http://www.ompersonal.com.ar/omexpress/numerosymedidas/numeroscardinalesyordinales.htm

Formal and informal greetings

When we first meet someone, or we found someone we allready know in the street, we use the greetings to start a conversation or to introduce ourselves. But there are different types of greetings depending of the situation we need to use them.

There are formal and informal greetings. We use formal greetings when we meet an important person and we use informal meetings when we meet someone we allready know or when we meet someone familiar.

Here's a video where we can learn some formal and informal greetings and when we can use them.