...and who are tired of waiting for buses and who don't want to walk...
http://www.bicycling.com/news/advocacy/share-road
This is a great, informative slide show that gives you some very useful advice about how to ride safely in the city.
Seriously...you should definitely think about biking to work. I rode to class yesterday and it was super-easy; it took me just as long as it does when I'm on the Metro, and, best of all, I had a good reason not to go to the gym after.
Enjoy!
6.22.2010
Spelling as Sport!
One of the peculiarities of spelling words in English is that, many times, there's no direct correlation between an individual letter - the letter "A", say - and the sound it represents. There are a lot of historical reasons for this (most of them too complicated to talk about here), but it has created a uniquely American pastime: the spelling bee.
A spelling bee is a competition, usually for children, where a group of kids are given words to spell. The children start out with easy words, but as the competition progresses, the words become more difficult, and each time a student spells a word incorrectly, he or she is eliminated. The winner is the person who, basically, can spell more words than any other competitor.
In the United States, the biggest and most famous spelling bee is the Scripps National Spelling Bee (http://www.spellingbee.com/), sponsored by the Scripps News Service. Each winner is sponsored by a Scripps newspaper, and this year's winner was Anamika Veeramani, from Ohio, who had to spell stromuhr to win. (A stromuhr is a kind of meter that measures how quickly blood goes through a vein.)
Want to try the test for yourself, to see if your spelling would be good enough to qualify? Click on this link: http://public.spellingbee.com/public/test/publicsample/?page=word.
If you think that only native English speakers would do well at this, think again: 21 of the 273 competitors in the 2010 competition do not speak English as their first language.
(Why "bee", you ask? In addition to the typical definition that everyone knows - a fat insect that makes honey and stings people - "bee" can also mean a social gathering where people combine work, competition, and amusement. No one's exactly sure where the word comes from, but it may come from Old English ben, "prayer".)
A spelling bee is a competition, usually for children, where a group of kids are given words to spell. The children start out with easy words, but as the competition progresses, the words become more difficult, and each time a student spells a word incorrectly, he or she is eliminated. The winner is the person who, basically, can spell more words than any other competitor.
In the United States, the biggest and most famous spelling bee is the Scripps National Spelling Bee (http://www.spellingbee.com/), sponsored by the Scripps News Service. Each winner is sponsored by a Scripps newspaper, and this year's winner was Anamika Veeramani, from Ohio, who had to spell stromuhr to win. (A stromuhr is a kind of meter that measures how quickly blood goes through a vein.)
Want to try the test for yourself, to see if your spelling would be good enough to qualify? Click on this link: http://public.spellingbee.com/public/test/publicsample/?page=word.
If you think that only native English speakers would do well at this, think again: 21 of the 273 competitors in the 2010 competition do not speak English as their first language.
(Why "bee", you ask? In addition to the typical definition that everyone knows - a fat insect that makes honey and stings people - "bee" can also mean a social gathering where people combine work, competition, and amusement. No one's exactly sure where the word comes from, but it may come from Old English ben, "prayer".)
6.16.2010
Five for free!
Not taking an English class this summer? Not sure how to practice in your spare time?
Here are five ideas that Paloma, Alicia, Concha, Vero and I came up with in class on Monday morning:
Send a company an e-mail. Pick a hotel, a famous British restaurant and an American department store, and ask them questions. You don't have to ask for really complicated information; you could write to ask about prices, opening hours, locations...
Listen to a podcast. If you use iTunes, go to the iTunes store and look up the subject "English language podcast" or "ESL podcast." I just did this, and I got a dozen different downloadable podcasts, all of which were free.
Learn a complete CD of music by heart. Personal suggestions: Amy Winehouse's "Black in Black" (OK, you may not like her, personally, but the songs are easy to sing); soundtracks to musicals like "Hairspray" or "Chicago" (be sure to write down and practice the phrasal verbs and set phrases you hear!). Try to avoid techno-pop or anything like New Order - yes, the songs are fun, but they don't make any sense!
Get a penfriend, or find someone you can practice your written English with! Try these sites:
http://www.englishjet.com/english_courses_files/people.htm
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/meeting/index.pl
http://esl-group.com/list1f.html
Speaking of penfriends...here's a free online reading comprehension exercise you can try: http://esl.about.com/od/beginningreadingskills/a/pen_pal.htm
Help tourists who are lost around Madrid. This is helpful for both you and the tourist: The tourist doesn't have to feel ashamed about not speaking enough Spanish to find where he or she wants to go, and you get five minutes of free English practice! But be reasonable; don't harrass the tourist too much or insist that he talk to you for, like, an hour or something.
There are lots of free websites with exercises and advice. My personal favourites include www.esl.about.com (the pen friends exercise above is from there), the BBC World Service Learning English site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml - check out the photo page that has a picture taken in Toledo!) and www.dictionary.com - especially useful if you want to learn more about the vocabulary you learned in class this year.
Good luck!
Here are five ideas that Paloma, Alicia, Concha, Vero and I came up with in class on Monday morning:
Send a company an e-mail. Pick a hotel, a famous British restaurant and an American department store, and ask them questions. You don't have to ask for really complicated information; you could write to ask about prices, opening hours, locations...
Listen to a podcast. If you use iTunes, go to the iTunes store and look up the subject "English language podcast" or "ESL podcast." I just did this, and I got a dozen different downloadable podcasts, all of which were free.
Learn a complete CD of music by heart. Personal suggestions: Amy Winehouse's "Black in Black" (OK, you may not like her, personally, but the songs are easy to sing); soundtracks to musicals like "Hairspray" or "Chicago" (be sure to write down and practice the phrasal verbs and set phrases you hear!). Try to avoid techno-pop or anything like New Order - yes, the songs are fun, but they don't make any sense!
Get a penfriend, or find someone you can practice your written English with! Try these sites:
http://www.englishjet.com/english_courses_files/people.htm
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/meeting/index.pl
http://esl-group.com/list1f.html
Speaking of penfriends...here's a free online reading comprehension exercise you can try: http://esl.about.com/od/beginningreadingskills/a/pen_pal.htm
Help tourists who are lost around Madrid. This is helpful for both you and the tourist: The tourist doesn't have to feel ashamed about not speaking enough Spanish to find where he or she wants to go, and you get five minutes of free English practice! But be reasonable; don't harrass the tourist too much or insist that he talk to you for, like, an hour or something.
There are lots of free websites with exercises and advice. My personal favourites include www.esl.about.com (the pen friends exercise above is from there), the BBC World Service Learning English site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml - check out the photo page that has a picture taken in Toledo!) and www.dictionary.com - especially useful if you want to learn more about the vocabulary you learned in class this year.
Good luck!
6.12.2010
The last World Cup post for today (I promise).
This video has no educational purpose at all. It's just a fun dance tune from the 2006 World Cup, and it's easy to understand the lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOZp6rgDedo
I just want to make it clear, by the way, that I'm not a really huge football fan or anything; English teachers have a nasty habit of focusing vocabulary on a particular season or event - it's simply a way of using current events (=news) to introduce new concepts. (Teacher stuff. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOZp6rgDedo
I just want to make it clear, by the way, that I'm not a really huge football fan or anything; English teachers have a nasty habit of focusing vocabulary on a particular season or event - it's simply a way of using current events (=news) to introduce new concepts. (Teacher stuff. :)
Some more World Cup fun....
For reasons that are too complicated to explain here (or, rather, I'll explain them later), most of the English as a Second Language dictionaries sold in Spain are from the UK -- Oxford, Longman and Cambridge, for example. American and Canadian students, however, typically use Merriam-Webster dictionaries, which were first published in the mid-19th century in the United States.
Merriam-Webster's website is a great place to find tons of fun information about English, and they've recently added a new feature: Ask the Editor. These videos give you short explanations (under 2 minutes) of the origins of certain words and expressions.
Here's one for you sports fans who want to know the origins of the noun "hat trick":
http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0009-hattrick.htm
Enjoy!
Merriam-Webster's website is a great place to find tons of fun information about English, and they've recently added a new feature: Ask the Editor. These videos give you short explanations (under 2 minutes) of the origins of certain words and expressions.
Here's one for you sports fans who want to know the origins of the noun "hat trick":
http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0009-hattrick.htm
Enjoy!
...and why do Americans call it soccer?
I confess: I had to look this one up.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/), the word soccer is a shorter form of "association", from the name of the Football Association. Speakers took "assoc", turned it into "soc", and added the informal "-er" suffix (you can also hear this in the way some people will call rubgy "rugger").
Football (which dates back to the early 15th century) is fairly obvious: you have a foot, you have a ball. Games like these date back to the Roman times; I like how the Online Etymology Dictionary points out that "[b]all-kicking games date back to the Roman legions, at least, but the sport seems to have risen to a national obsession in England, c.1630." (Some things never change.)
Hooligan dates back more than one hundred years:
...of unknown origin, first found in British newspaper police-court reports in the summer of 1898, almost certainly from the surname "Houlihan", supposedly from a lively family of that name in London (who figured in music hall songs of the decade). Internationalized 20c. in communist rhetoric as Rusian khuligan, opprobrium [=criticism] for "scofflaws, political dissenters, etc."
For more information on word origins connection with football/soccer/whatever you call it, look here: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=soccer&searchmode=none.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/), the word soccer is a shorter form of "association", from the name of the Football Association. Speakers took "assoc", turned it into "soc", and added the informal "-er" suffix (you can also hear this in the way some people will call rubgy "rugger").
Football (which dates back to the early 15th century) is fairly obvious: you have a foot, you have a ball. Games like these date back to the Roman times; I like how the Online Etymology Dictionary points out that "[b]all-kicking games date back to the Roman legions, at least, but the sport seems to have risen to a national obsession in England, c.1630." (Some things never change.)
Hooligan dates back more than one hundred years:
...of unknown origin, first found in British newspaper police-court reports in the summer of 1898, almost certainly from the surname "Houlihan", supposedly from a lively family of that name in London (who figured in music hall songs of the decade). Internationalized 20c. in communist rhetoric as Rusian khuligan, opprobrium [=criticism] for "scofflaws, political dissenters, etc."
For more information on word origins connection with football/soccer/whatever you call it, look here: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=soccer&searchmode=none.
6.11.2010
Subject: Subjunctive (Part 1 of 3)
One of the biggest advantages to learning English is the fact that, in English, you have a maximum of FIVE words to express any verb idea:
º the infinitive - TO BE ... TO EAT....TO PAINT
º the present simple - AM/ARE/IS....EAT(S)...PAINT(S)
º the past simple - WAS/WERE...ATE...PAINTED
º the present participle - BEING...EATING...PAINTING... and...
º the past participle - BEEN...EATEN...PAINTED
For people who are learning English, this is either a blessing or a curse. It's a blessing (what's the third person past preterit subjunctive of TO PAINT? Who cares!!), but it can cause difficulties for Spanish speakers of English for two reasons.
The first is obvious: If you're used to using a whole bunch of different words to express very specific ideas, it may feel strange, at first, to limit yourself to only a couple of words.
The second reason is the most difficult and it's the kind of problem that causes people to fail oral exams - it's EXACTLY the kind of mistake the examiner listens for, to check if you're translating or you're really using English.
Let's take idea as an example.
Imagine that you're at a party, and a drunk, obnoxious person comes up to you and starts bugging you. You ask him nicely to leave you alone, but he won't go. Then he tries to hit you! You go to the host of the party, and, in Spanish, you say....
¡QUIERO QUE SE VAYA!
This is a perfect example of when you use subjunctive in Spanish:
a) the two verbs have different subjects: (yo) quiero // (él) se vaya.
b) you can't control the result: quiero doesn't guarantee that the second action (irse) is going to happen.
But in English, you cannot say: *I want that he leaves.
Why not?
Look at the first verb: want. In English, WANT is always transitive: you always want something, or you want someone to do another action. Since you're the speaker and your want is the most important verb in the sentence, you have to complete that verb first.
I want (direct object)...
The direct object of want in this case is HIM, because a verb cannot be a direct object.
I want him (third person singular object pronoun)
So what happens with the second verb? Ah. Since HIM is already the direct object of WANT, it can't ALSO be the subject of LEAVE. It can't do both jobs. As a result, WANT doesn't have a subject, which means it must be infinitive:
I want him to leave.
This is correct English: Two verbs, but only ONE possible subject, so the second verb has to be put into the infinitive. Spanish looks at this situation and sees a philosophical problem; English looks at the situation and sees structural problems with the verbs.
It's worth remembering tthis is the kind of mistake that examiners listen for, especially in First Certificate speaking exams. Remember, it's called the First because it's the first Cambridge exam where you must show that you can communicate without translating. And it's especially important to use common verbs like WANT, HOPE, LIKE properly.
If you're not sure how to organize the information after the verb, a quality English-only dictionary like the Oxford University Press series of dictionaries will describe what verb patterns to use, depending on how you use the verb. (In the Oxford dictionaries, verbs that need infinitives after have the V+[TO- inf] code after them.)
º the infinitive - TO BE ... TO EAT....TO PAINT
º the present simple - AM/ARE/IS....EAT(S)...PAINT(S)
º the past simple - WAS/WERE...ATE...PAINTED
º the present participle - BEING...EATING...PAINTING... and...
º the past participle - BEEN...EATEN...PAINTED
For people who are learning English, this is either a blessing or a curse. It's a blessing (what's the third person past preterit subjunctive of TO PAINT? Who cares!!), but it can cause difficulties for Spanish speakers of English for two reasons.
The first is obvious: If you're used to using a whole bunch of different words to express very specific ideas, it may feel strange, at first, to limit yourself to only a couple of words.
The second reason is the most difficult and it's the kind of problem that causes people to fail oral exams - it's EXACTLY the kind of mistake the examiner listens for, to check if you're translating or you're really using English.
Let's take idea as an example.
Imagine that you're at a party, and a drunk, obnoxious person comes up to you and starts bugging you. You ask him nicely to leave you alone, but he won't go. Then he tries to hit you! You go to the host of the party, and, in Spanish, you say....
¡QUIERO QUE SE VAYA!
This is a perfect example of when you use subjunctive in Spanish:
a) the two verbs have different subjects: (yo) quiero // (él) se vaya.
b) you can't control the result: quiero doesn't guarantee that the second action (irse) is going to happen.
But in English, you cannot say: *I want that he leaves.
Why not?
Look at the first verb: want. In English, WANT is always transitive: you always want something, or you want someone to do another action. Since you're the speaker and your want is the most important verb in the sentence, you have to complete that verb first.
I want (direct object)...
The direct object of want in this case is HIM, because a verb cannot be a direct object.
I want him (third person singular object pronoun)
So what happens with the second verb? Ah. Since HIM is already the direct object of WANT, it can't ALSO be the subject of LEAVE. It can't do both jobs. As a result, WANT doesn't have a subject, which means it must be infinitive:
I want him to leave.
This is correct English: Two verbs, but only ONE possible subject, so the second verb has to be put into the infinitive. Spanish looks at this situation and sees a philosophical problem; English looks at the situation and sees structural problems with the verbs.
It's worth remembering tthis is the kind of mistake that examiners listen for, especially in First Certificate speaking exams. Remember, it's called the First because it's the first Cambridge exam where you must show that you can communicate without translating. And it's especially important to use common verbs like WANT, HOPE, LIKE properly.
If you're not sure how to organize the information after the verb, a quality English-only dictionary like the Oxford University Press series of dictionaries will describe what verb patterns to use, depending on how you use the verb. (In the Oxford dictionaries, verbs that need infinitives after have the V+[TO- inf] code after them.)
6.10.2010
Some thoughts about practising over the summer...
I know, I know, I know....
Today is the 10th of June, which means that a lot of you are finishing classes this week. Those of you who are writing the First Certificate will be happy when Saturday afternoon comes. And I know that everyone has big plans for the summer, that they're going to find an intercambio or watch movies or fall in love with someone from an English-speaking country. (If they're VERY lucky, they might have the chance to do all three.)
I'm doing a list of ways to study for one of my clients, but let me just say this: Whatever you do, make it fun. Fun funciona. Fun in the sun, 'cause it's summer! Seriously, though - even if you only choose to do one thing to practice, enjoy it. Have fun with it. It could be watching SpongeBob SquarePants in English (yes, it's weird, but the images are so strange the language kind of becomes irrelevant, don't you think?) It could be learning songs by Amy Winehouse or Lady Gaga or Madonna. Whatever you choose, choose something that will make you smile and have fun. You're more likely to continue doing it.
Today is the 10th of June, which means that a lot of you are finishing classes this week. Those of you who are writing the First Certificate will be happy when Saturday afternoon comes. And I know that everyone has big plans for the summer, that they're going to find an intercambio or watch movies or fall in love with someone from an English-speaking country. (If they're VERY lucky, they might have the chance to do all three.)
I'm doing a list of ways to study for one of my clients, but let me just say this: Whatever you do, make it fun. Fun funciona. Fun in the sun, 'cause it's summer! Seriously, though - even if you only choose to do one thing to practice, enjoy it. Have fun with it. It could be watching SpongeBob SquarePants in English (yes, it's weird, but the images are so strange the language kind of becomes irrelevant, don't you think?) It could be learning songs by Amy Winehouse or Lady Gaga or Madonna. Whatever you choose, choose something that will make you smile and have fun. You're more likely to continue doing it.
Interview: Ken Gomez, the Genius behind the ENGLISH LEARNER'S NOTEBOOK
Ken Gomez worked as a product designer for twenty years before he took the plunge and became a CELTA-certified teacher last year. Now he's combined his two talents and created the ENGLISH LEARNER'S NOTEBOOK, which is on sale at Booksellers (c/Fernandez de la Hoz, 40 - Metro Iglesia or Gregorio Marañón) in Madrid.
I had the opportunity to speak with Ken this morning and to ask him to tell me more about the NOTEBOOK.
SS: This is fabulous! Where did you get the idea?
Ken Gomez: I studied a CELTA last year at Hyland Language School - I'd been working as a designer, but work was slipping away. While I was teaching, I was watching the students and how they learned, and I thought: If we gave them a notebook with templates, that might be helpful. So I spoke to Catherine Morely, I spoke to the people at Hyland, and they thought it was a good idea.
After all, every student needs a notebook, so if you have a tool, if you have templates, it's even better. It helps the students make their own English book as well! And it makes it easier for students to get into the habit of writing down the information they need.
SS: How has the reaction been so far?
Ken Gomez: I haven't had a lot of reaction yet, because the book's only been out for a couple of months; I've just had the reaction of some students and some teachers, but it's been really positive. Right now it's only on sale in Madrid at Booksellers, but I have someone in distribution looking at it. And people will be able to buy the book through the website (http://www.enleno.com) shortly.
SS: Any plans for a second edition yet?
Ken Gomez [laughing:] We still have to get through the first edition! But yeah, I've already started getting feedback from some teachers, and I already have some ideas about what to do with the second edition.
I had the opportunity to speak with Ken this morning and to ask him to tell me more about the NOTEBOOK.
SS: This is fabulous! Where did you get the idea?
Ken Gomez: I studied a CELTA last year at Hyland Language School - I'd been working as a designer, but work was slipping away. While I was teaching, I was watching the students and how they learned, and I thought: If we gave them a notebook with templates, that might be helpful. So I spoke to Catherine Morely, I spoke to the people at Hyland, and they thought it was a good idea.
After all, every student needs a notebook, so if you have a tool, if you have templates, it's even better. It helps the students make their own English book as well! And it makes it easier for students to get into the habit of writing down the information they need.
SS: How has the reaction been so far?
Ken Gomez: I haven't had a lot of reaction yet, because the book's only been out for a couple of months; I've just had the reaction of some students and some teachers, but it's been really positive. Right now it's only on sale in Madrid at Booksellers, but I have someone in distribution looking at it. And people will be able to buy the book through the website (http://www.enleno.com) shortly.
SS: Any plans for a second edition yet?
Ken Gomez [laughing:] We still have to get through the first edition! But yeah, I've already started getting feedback from some teachers, and I already have some ideas about what to do with the second edition.
6.09.2010
THIS is cool:
Two teachers from Madrid, Ken Gomez and Catherine Morely, have worked together to create one of the most interesting tools I've ever seen for English students: http://www.enleno.com. Their English Learner Notebook may just be the best €8 you ever spend in an English classroom: it's designed to help you organize all the vocabulary, notes, pronunciation, verb tenses and other information that you could ever learn in class.
Be sure to come back and visit the blog tomorrow; I'll have a new post that features information about Ken and The Notebook.
Be sure to come back and visit the blog tomorrow; I'll have a new post that features information about Ken and The Notebook.
6.08.2010
If you're looking for a private teacher....
Now that summer is here, there are a lot of students who are looking for private teachers. Some students just want someone to talk to; others need to find a teacher who has a firm understanding of grammar and linguistics. While you're certainly welcome to contact me about classes (e-mail me at stop.spanglish (at) yahoo (dot) es!), I know that the Stop Spanglish way of teaching isn't for everyone, and that you may be looking for different things in a teacher.
I've often thought about how the relationships between students and teachers work, so here are some thoughts that I had. I hope these help you find a teacher you really like.
You have the right to have a teacher who answers your questions and who helps you. You do not have to tolerate a teacher who talks endlessly and who doesn't listen to you.
You have the right to ask for help with specific skills. If you're the student, you're the boss. You are the person who understands your needs the best, and while the teacher is there to help you, he or she can't possibly understand everything you need. You have to be assertive and clear about what you want to do.
You have the right to a teacher who acts in a professional manner: someone who is on time, someone who understands the material they are going to teach you.
You have the right to ask for homework. But if you do, you also have the obligation to actually DO that homework.
Remember that teachers don't do this work for fun. Many of us have rent and bills to pay and it's very insulting when students cancel at the last minute (and we don't get paid), or when students try to get us down to a lower hourly rate. Do you ask your lawyer to reduce how much he charges? Do you ask your gestor not to be expensive? True English teachers are trained professionals who are worth the money you pay. Remember: a lot of people pay their cleaning ladies a measly €12 per hour, and a lot of cleaning ladies can't even read and write properly. You can pay €12 an hour for English classes, but beware: you get what you pay for.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, so if you want to make a comment or a suggestion, I'd love to hear from you.
I've often thought about how the relationships between students and teachers work, so here are some thoughts that I had. I hope these help you find a teacher you really like.
You have the right to have a teacher who answers your questions and who helps you. You do not have to tolerate a teacher who talks endlessly and who doesn't listen to you.
You have the right to ask for help with specific skills. If you're the student, you're the boss. You are the person who understands your needs the best, and while the teacher is there to help you, he or she can't possibly understand everything you need. You have to be assertive and clear about what you want to do.
You have the right to a teacher who acts in a professional manner: someone who is on time, someone who understands the material they are going to teach you.
You have the right to ask for homework. But if you do, you also have the obligation to actually DO that homework.
Remember that teachers don't do this work for fun. Many of us have rent and bills to pay and it's very insulting when students cancel at the last minute (and we don't get paid), or when students try to get us down to a lower hourly rate. Do you ask your lawyer to reduce how much he charges? Do you ask your gestor not to be expensive? True English teachers are trained professionals who are worth the money you pay. Remember: a lot of people pay their cleaning ladies a measly €12 per hour, and a lot of cleaning ladies can't even read and write properly. You can pay €12 an hour for English classes, but beware: you get what you pay for.
I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, so if you want to make a comment or a suggestion, I'd love to hear from you.
6.03.2010
Making sense of phrasal verbs: Introduction
If there's one thing about English vocabulary that makes students wince, it's phrasal verbs.
I'm not the best person to talk about the history of phrasal verbs (if you're really interested, you can check out this University of Toronto web page: http://tinyurl.com/35gftf5), but I do know from experience that it's hard to teach students phrasal verbs.
When learning phrasal verbs, don't panic. Over the summer I'll post information on hints and tips on how to remember and use phrasal verbs. Before we start, however, there are a couple of pieces of information that you should remember:
a) When you learn a phrasal verb for the first time, make sure you understand if it's transitive or intransitive. Intransitive verbs are verbs that do not need direct objects: with the verb and the subject alone, the verb makes sense: Elvis died. The sun is coming up. But some verbs don't make sense if you don't include a direct object: *I want. *She has to buy.
The problem is that some phrasal verb combinations can have transitive and intransitive meanings. Take the example of put off:
Transitive - to procrastinate: She put off her tax return until the very last minute.
Intransitive - to distract: I can't concentrate! That noise is putting me off!
b) Make sure you know WHAT or WHO the direct object is. This can make a big difference in the meaning of the verb:
I put my back out last week playing tennis. (to dislocate a part of the body)
The company put out a press release announcing the changes. (to broadcast)
The firefighters were unable to put out the fire. (to extinguish)
If you want the bus to stop you need to put your arm out and wave. (to extend from the body.)
In this case, you have two meanings that can only be used with parts of the body (dislocate/extend), one that refers to information (broadcast) and one that talks about an object (to extinguish a fire.) This technique works best if you....
c) Learn phrasal verbs within a specific context. Most students cannot remember the meanings of phrasal verbs if they learn them from long lists, and if you take a look at your textbooks, you'll notice that most of them only show you the phrasal verbs that you would need to talk about a specific idea.
As an example, observe these phrasal verbs that talk about appearance:
People are always mistaking Diane for her sister. It's hard to make out the difference if you're looking at them from a distance, but the sister is usually more made up (look out for the bright lipstick) and because she's a little bigger, she needs to let out her skirts and trousers.
Can you make a list of thea meanings and the direct objects (if needed) for each of these phrasal verbs?
In the next post about phrasal verbs, we'll look at how to predict what a phrasal verb means by looking at its particle.
TODAY'S VOCABULARY:
to wince: to pull your body or face back because you are in pain or because someone has hit you.
to check something out: to take a look at something.
I'm not the best person to talk about the history of phrasal verbs (if you're really interested, you can check out this University of Toronto web page: http://tinyurl.com/35gftf5), but I do know from experience that it's hard to teach students phrasal verbs.
When learning phrasal verbs, don't panic. Over the summer I'll post information on hints and tips on how to remember and use phrasal verbs. Before we start, however, there are a couple of pieces of information that you should remember:
a) When you learn a phrasal verb for the first time, make sure you understand if it's transitive or intransitive. Intransitive verbs are verbs that do not need direct objects: with the verb and the subject alone, the verb makes sense: Elvis died. The sun is coming up. But some verbs don't make sense if you don't include a direct object: *I want. *She has to buy.
The problem is that some phrasal verb combinations can have transitive and intransitive meanings. Take the example of put off:
Transitive - to procrastinate: She put off her tax return until the very last minute.
Intransitive - to distract: I can't concentrate! That noise is putting me off!
b) Make sure you know WHAT or WHO the direct object is. This can make a big difference in the meaning of the verb:
I put my back out last week playing tennis. (to dislocate a part of the body)
The company put out a press release announcing the changes. (to broadcast)
The firefighters were unable to put out the fire. (to extinguish)
If you want the bus to stop you need to put your arm out and wave. (to extend from the body.)
In this case, you have two meanings that can only be used with parts of the body (dislocate/extend), one that refers to information (broadcast) and one that talks about an object (to extinguish a fire.) This technique works best if you....
c) Learn phrasal verbs within a specific context. Most students cannot remember the meanings of phrasal verbs if they learn them from long lists, and if you take a look at your textbooks, you'll notice that most of them only show you the phrasal verbs that you would need to talk about a specific idea.
As an example, observe these phrasal verbs that talk about appearance:
People are always mistaking Diane for her sister. It's hard to make out the difference if you're looking at them from a distance, but the sister is usually more made up (look out for the bright lipstick) and because she's a little bigger, she needs to let out her skirts and trousers.
Can you make a list of thea meanings and the direct objects (if needed) for each of these phrasal verbs?
In the next post about phrasal verbs, we'll look at how to predict what a phrasal verb means by looking at its particle.
TODAY'S VOCABULARY:
to wince: to pull your body or face back because you are in pain or because someone has hit you.
to check something out: to take a look at something.
Back again!
Hi everyone!
Sorry for the delay in posting new things. I've just moved house and will be house-sitting in La Latina this summer. Moving and blogging really don't go well together.
More information soon...
Sorry for the delay in posting new things. I've just moved house and will be house-sitting in La Latina this summer. Moving and blogging really don't go well together.
More information soon...
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