Unreal past - Unit 09

The unreal past is used to talk about imaginary situation in the past. You can describe what you would have done differently or how something could have happened different if circumstances had been different.

examples:

• We use wish + past simple to talk about things, we would like to be different in present.

example:

            I wish you were famous.

• We use wish + past perfect to talk about that happened in the past that we wish hadn't happened.

example:

             I wish I had asked her out before she moves away.

• We use if only for emphasis, or to emphasize something,

example:

              If only I had my bill on time, now I owe more money

• We use wish + would to talk about things we want to stop because we find them annoying.

example:

             I wish the dog would stop barking.

When we want to express a wish or we want to refer us to something unreal, we can use some expressions which will help us to demonstrate a specific situation... for example: 

I wish you were here at this moment.

I'd rather you do the daily chores instead of me. 

If only I knew the correct answer.

Reflections 

These grammar structures are so useful when we are talking about regrets, past situations which we want to change or remind. In my personal opinion, sometimes these structures are confusing, because depends about what you want to say... depending of the intention of the speaker because isn't the same try to say "If only I knew the answer" that "If only I had known the answer", we have to identify what exactly what we want to express and be careful with which unreal past we want to use.

Reporting verbs - Unit 08

Reporting Verbs

We use reporting verbs to report what someone said in at specific time. People are used to use "say and tell", but there are a lot of verbs for reporting. Some reporting verbs follow an specific structure, we are going to see some of those verbs an how they work. 

• verb + infinitive:

                          agree, decide, offer, promise, refuse, threaten.

examples:

              They agreed to meet you on the Cafeteria. 

              He refused to eat, he was totally full.

• verb + object + infinitive:

                              advise, encourage, invite, remind, warn

examples:

              Ana advised him to go home early.

              He reminded me to telephone my sister.

• verb + gerund

                      deny, recommend, suggest 
examples:
              They recommended taking the bus because It is faster.
               She suggested meeting a little earlier;

• verb + object + preposition (+gerund)

                        accuse, blame. congratulate 
examples:
                He accused me of taking his money.
                They congratulated me on passing the quarter.

Reflections

When someone is learning a language, at the beginning this person will learn the most common words, the most common grammar structures, at the beginning that is correct but we are going to grow up in the language, so for the reason it is really important to know the exist a lot of ways to say the same sentence... we have to search a little bit about grammar and we are going to find lots of information related with any topic. for example in this grammar structure we have different "reporting verbs" and every reporting verb has its specific structure and we have to follow it. If we know how to use them it would be easier to apply them in any context and also we will gain more fluency in our speaking skill.

Verbs followed by infinitives or gerunds - Unit 07

Some verbs can be followed by an infinitive and gerund, but sometimes the meaning of the sentence changes.

We are going to see some example, and how in these sentences the meaning change.

Forget:

           I forgot to meet him.

In this sentence means: I didn't meet him, because I forgot it. 

           I forgot meeting him.

In this one means: I don't have memory of meeting him before. The meaning changes if we are using an infinitive or gerund.

Remember:

                 She remembered to visit her mom.

It means: She didn't forget to visit her mom.

                 She remembered visiting her mom.

It means: She had memories of this times.

Stop:

        I stopped to call you.

It means: I interrupted another action in order to call you.

        I stopped calling you.

It means: I stopped this action because I had something important to do. 

Try:

     I tried to open the window.

It means: I attended this action but I didn't succeed

     I tried opening the window.

It means: This was an option I sampled, maybe the room was too hot.

Reflections:

In the examples above, we could appreciate the differences in meaning when we use an infinitive or gerund. It is so important to understand how and when we have to use an infinitive or a gerund... 

Sometimes we can use both and the sentence would have the same meaning but there are some cases in which the meaning of the sentence will change according if we use an infinitive or a gerund. the only way to learn them is to memorize the partner verbs. If we could dominate them, we will have a better level of English (principally grammar and fluency). 

Clauses Whatever, Whenever... - Unit 06

When we don't want to refer to a particular pronoun, we have the Clauses Wh-, which can help us to do our sentences more fluent and without repeating a lot of times the same subject.

In the picture below we have some uses of whatever, and how we can apply it in different contexts.

example:
            Whatever the hour, he calls me.

This sentence means: It doesn't matter the hour, he will call her... "Whatever" is used because we don't know the exact time when he will call, he calls her to anytime

We have another way to say the same sentences without using Clauses Wh-, we can rephrased, the image above expain how we can use it.

example about Clauses Wh-:

                             You can have whatever you want.

It means: you can have anything that you want to.

                            Whichever person you ask, he will tell you the same.

It means: Any person you ask, you will say the same.

                          However you dress, you always look good.

It means: Any way you dress, you look good.

Reflections:

It is really important to understand the uses of Clauses Wh-, we can say the same sentence in different ways.. keeping the exact meaning. Sometimes we don't know who did something and we are used to say I don't know who was instead of saying Whoever did the action... these clauses are really useful in our vocabulary and fluency... if we want to sound much better we have to use them.

Thanksgiving..!!

Thanksgiving is a special holiday celebrated all over the world, almost every country has a similar tradition related with thank. In United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the forth Thursday in the month of November, there is not a specific date for celebrating it, every year the date changes.

This is a time for feeling gratitude. A curious data is the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621.

 As part of the celebration, there are some traditions that people are used to do in this holiday.

For example families are used to join in a family's house for praying and thank for their health, family, friends, relationships among others.

Also there are some special dishes... the most famous is turkey almost in every house eats turkey, people are used to eat pumpkin pie, this dish is really traditional in Thanksgiving... another popular dish is  sweet potatoes and corn.

Thanksgiving means to feel thank for the good and bad things... in United States some people like to give food and clothes to homeless and share a time with them... these actions are ways that they found out for saying thank...

In my personal opinion I like these kind of actions it is a different way to feel grateful too. 

Emphasis sentences - Unit 05

For emphasising sentences we can use passive constructions.

example:
               The suspect was arrested by the police.

In this sentence we are emphasising "the suspect was arrested" in this case "by the police" is extra information,the most important thing here is tha the suspect was arrested.

Fronting

We can also change the clause´s order in the sentence, we can put it in the beginning,

example:
      What she thinks she is doing, I don´t know!

In this sentence the order was changed, normally we use this kind of sentence, in a different order. At the end as in the last sentence we are emphasising that she is doing somthing that we don´t.. the order was changed for emphasising the action.

Cleft sentences
This clause beginning with "it is, it was".

example:
              It was Juan who spotted the mistake.

In this sentence we are emphasising the person who did the mistake, who was Juan.

Reflections

When we want to emphasise something or someone we can use these three ways to do it... sometime we want to focus in who did somthing, so in that situation we can use the cleft sentence for emphasising who did the action... also we can use passive construtions for emphasising too... The main idea is to use this kind of sentences when we want to denote what happen or who did what. 

Future probability - Unit 04

Future probability - grammar 

For expressing future probability, we can use modal verbs "will, could, may, might" also with can use these modals with phrases, for denoting how sure we are about the issue.

• Will - we can use it when something will almost definitely happen, we use will for predicting based on the evidence.

• May/ Might - we can use them when something is likely to happen, there are posibilities that happen.

• Remote/ Doubt/ Slim/ Probabily won´t - we use these expression for denoting something unlikely to happen, when there are few possibilities.

• Inconceivable - we can use this word when we don´t have any possibility, when there is a zzero porcente that something will happen.

examples:

• I´m sure she´ll notice it´s missing // there is a 100% she will notice.
• There is a strong posiibility that today rains // there is a 75% of possibilities that today rains.
• There´s a slight possibility that I miss my keys // there is a 25% that I will miss my keys.
• It isn´t possible that we´llbe able to travel today // there is a 0% that we travel today.

Reflections

We have to learn how to use these modals of verbs, sometimes we just use I will or won´t for expressing future probability but in English there are a lot of ways to say the same sentence... we have to try to use them of we want to have more fluency, this is our challenge. The only way to get it is to practice them... It is easier to acquire when we try to apply them in context... not just knowing the meaning.