Intermediate II: Biography and Tale

Here is some listening practice with two typical instances of the use of the past tenses: a biography and a children's tale. As for the biography, the narrator is obviously an extremely proficient non-native speaker; everything he says is correct but for a couple of minor details, among them the way he pronounces "honourable", and "national" and its derivates (correct pronunciation:/ˈɒnərəbl/ and /ˈnæʃnəl/ but careful, nation = "neIʃn").

Intermediate II: Regular Past Tense Pronunciation Revisited

As she says: "Do not leave off the final sounds"

Remember, 3 different cases to consider when pronouncing regular pasts:

1) Pataca, chouzas, xefe (unvoiced/voiceless sounds). "t" (an unvoiced consonant) is an exception when it comes to these voiceless consonants affecting the pronunciation of the past tense of regular verbs.

2) Voiced sounds, vowels and all other consonants. "d" (a voiced consonant) is an exception for the pronunciation of past tenses.

3) verbs ending in "t" or "d".

It is all very clearly explained on this video and on the one I posted on this same matter earlier on this month (October 2009).

Intermediate II. Past Tenses

As they say "practice makes perfect", quite a convenient saying in this case. Practise past tenses through the following online exercises:

Simple past or present perfect?

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/check.php

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/StudyZone/410/grammar/ppvpast1.htm

Past perfect contrasted with other past tenses.

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html

Irregular verbs:

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/verbs.htm
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/verbs4/index.php
http://www.englishpage.com/irregularverbs/interactiveirregularverbs1.htm

Advanced II Disagreement 2

When Harry met Sally. Beginning of the film with dialogues containing expressions of agreement and disagreement. These sequences complete the other video you will find below from the same film.

Should you have any trouble to understand any of the lines and want to find out what they were saying, here is a link with the film script: http://corky.net/scripts/whenHarryMetSally.html

Advanced II Personality adjectives

Below you will find a couple of links containing exercises with personality adjectives. Enjoy!

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/exercises/grammar/adjectives/personality/synonyms/adjectives-describing-personality.html

http://usuarios.lycos.es/englishweb/vocabulario/AdjectPerson1.htm

http://www.esltower.com/VOCABQUIZ/Describing%20personality/Describing%20personality.html

Advanced II. Personality and star signs

It is not that I am a great fan of astrology. In fact, I think it is all a load of old mythological gibberish. But it can actually be as good an excuse as any other to start up a conversation on people's personality. Here is the activity I suggest: go to Youtube.com and do a search with your star sign with the words :

"All about astrology: the sign (here you must key in your zodiac sign) in astrology."

In case you cannot remember the spelling, the list is: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.

Listen to the 2 to 3-minute long video and then post a comment on which things from your sign description could be used to define you and those which are a far shot (not characteristic of you by far). Here is my own sign as an appetiser.

Intermediate II. Link with food vocabulary

Through the following link you will be able to practice with and/or acquire vocabulary connected with food and cooking. Do try some of the exercises from the section food and drink!

http://www.esolcourses.com/content/exercises/vocabulary/english-vocabulary.html

Advanced II Disagreement

This is a sequence from a classic 90s film, "When Harry Met Sally" (with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal); a perfect example of how to express disagreement in English. I will be posting more on it shortly.

Intermediate II. How not to cook a Spanish tortilla.

Let's benevolently credit Anne Mooney with being full of good intentions, but she's obviously cooking something no true Spaniard would recognise as a tortilla. Watch the video and make comments about what she should have done instead.

Intermediate II. Galician-style octopus

Fill in the missing words in the video script.

We are now going to ______ a Galician-style octopus with paprika ________ flakes.
First, we cut the octopus in large ________ and we lay them down on the cooked potatoes we have previously __________ .

We _________ a touch of _________ parsley, olive oil and the paprika sea salt _____ . And ________ to ________ .

And remember: "octopus to the party" (free translation of "polbo á feira")is an octopus feeling festive, not a cooked one.