Games at the beach. June 2011

Blue Week 2011

Using computers and an Interactive Whiteboard to practice English

Immediate Future - Going to

Going to future expresses a conclusion regarding the immediate future or an action in the near future that has already been planned or prepared.

Form of going to Future

	positive	negative	question
I	I am going to speak.	I am not going to speak.	Am I going to speak?
you / we / they	You are going to speak.	You are not going to speak.	Are you going to speak?
he / she / it	He is going to speak.	He is not going to speak.	Is he going to speak?

Use of going to Future

• an action in the near future that has already been planned or prepared
  example: I am going to study harder next year.
• a conclusion regarding the immediate future
  example: The sky is absolutely dark. It is going to rain.

Signal Words

• in one year, next week, tomorrow

Daily Routines activity

zonaClic - actividades - Daily routines

Past Simple: Irregular verbs I

Past Simple of Irregular verbs: An Easy Approach.

Affirmative sentences.

We know that we can talk in past simple tense just adding an -ED at the end of the verb. (listen -> listened).
This rule works for the 99,99% of the verbs in English Language.
BUT
There are some verbs that DON'T FOLLOW this rule. They are called Irregular Verbs.
Irregular verbs make the Past Simple changing the verb in present into another word, sometimes a very different one.

Here you have some examples of some Irregular verbs (there are many others).

Castellano	Present Simple	Past Simple
Ir	Go	Went
Dar	Give	Gave
Decir	Say	Said
Tener	Have/has	Had
Ser / Estar	Am / is / are	Was / were
Hacer	Do /does	Did

Notice: You can't apply the regular verb rule to the irregular verbs. That won't have any sense  and English people won't understand you at all. 

For example:

Present: I go home

Past:       I went home

We can't say: I goed home. We can't add -ED at the end of an irregular verb, that would be a mistake.

If we want to make negative or interrogative sentences using irregular verbs, we do it as we do in the regular verbs, using "didn't" and "Did __ ?" and the verb in present. That doesn't change.

You can watch this video and learn even more irregular verbs.

Past Simple Regular Verbs

Past Simple, regular verbs

Affirmative
Subject	verb + ed
I	washed
Negative
Subject	did not	infinitive
They	didn't	visit ...
Interrogative
Did	subject	infinitive
Did	she	arrive...?

Examples: to walk, simple past.

Pronoun	Affirmative	Negative	Interrogative
I	I walked home	II didn't walk home.	Did you walk home?
he, she, it	He walked home	He didn't walk home	Did he walk home?
you, we, they	They walked home.	They didn't walk home.	Did you walk home?

Note: For the negative and interrogative form of all verbs in the simple past, always use the auxiliary 'did''.
Affirmative video.            Negative video.              Interrogative video.

Present Continuous for 5th Grade students

Present Continuous

In Present continuous you have to use the verb "to be" with the action verb, adding an -ing suffix to the end of the action.

We use Present Continuous when we're talking about something happening NOW.

For example:

Ell està jugant a futbol -> He is playing football
Ell no està jugant a futbol. -> He isn't playing football
Ell està jugant a futbol? -> Is he playing football?

Use:

• am with the personal pronoun I
• is with the personal pronouns he, she or it (or the singular form of nouns)
• are with the personal pronouns you, we, they (or the plural form of nouns)

Pronoun	Affirmative	Negative	Interrogative
I	I am playing.	I am not playing.	Am I playing?
he, she, it	He is playing.	He isn't playing.	Is he playing?
you, we, they	You are playing.	You aren't playing.	Are you playing?

Notice that you can use "is not" or "isn't" and "are not" or "aren't". It's the same thing.
Present Continuous is also called "Present Progressive".

Conversational widget

You can practice your English with this conversational bot. It's a Chatbot, ready to answer your sentences and questions. Please, be kind with her, it's a female device.


This is another example of Chatbot:

Carnaval 2011.

Telling the Time in English

Asking for the time: What's the time?  or What time is it?

For answering this question,

Say the minutes first and then the hours. Use past and the preceding hour for minutes 01 through 30. Use to and the forthcoming hour for minutes 31 through 59, but .

Example: 7.20 - twenty minutes past seven

Example: 7.40 - twenty minutes to eight

The way of saying '15 minutes past' is: a quarter past
The way of saying '15 minutes to' is: a quarter to

Instead of '30 minutes past' we say: half past

Example: 5:30 - half past five

Watch

Note

Use o'clock only at the full hour.

You can watch this video for more help and do the online activities about "the time" to practice.

You can work with this activity.

zonaClic - actividades - El reloj

Dia de la pau 2011

Tracking Barcelona World Race Regatta

Present Simple Verb To Be

The verb to be means "ser" o "estar" in Spanish.
You can practice the present simple of the verb to be using this activity.

zonaClic - actividades - To be

We dance for "La marató de TV3"

Everybody at school Carles III de Sant Carles de la Rapita joined this dance. We sent the video to TV3. It will be broadcasted during the weekend at "La Marató de TV3" TV programme.

Christmas 2010-2011

Children wish you a Happy 2011.

Castanyada 2010

Castanyada curs 2010-11, kids from cicle superior dance traditional songs.

Superlative

In the superlative you talk about one thing only and how it is the best, worst, etc. You do not compare two things. The following guidelines apply to the superlative:

1-syllable adjectives: add -est to the adjective (plus the)

• My sister is the tallest in our family.
• Yesterday was the coldest day of the year so far.

Note: If the word ends: consonant-vowel-consonant, then the last consonant is usually doubled in the superlative. Examples: big-biggest, fat-fattest, hot-hottest.

2-syllable adjectives ending in -y: change the -y to -iest (plus the)

• The richest people are not always the happiest.
• Which do you think is the easiest language to learn?
• She's the luckiest person I know.

Beware: Do not confuse adjectives and adverbs. 2-syllable adverbs ending in -y form their superlative with the words the most. Example: Of all the people I know my father drives the most quickly (quickliest).

Other 2-syllable adjectives: use the most with the unchanged adjective

• The most boring thing about ESL class is doing grammar exercises.
• My sister is the most careful person I know.

Note: The superlative of some shorter 2-syllable adjectives can be formed with -er. Examples: simple-simplest, clever-cleverest, narrow-narrowest. To be sure which superlative method to use, you will need to consult a good dictionary.

Adjectives with 3 or more syllables: use the most with the unchanged adjective

• Some people think that Russian is the most difficult language.
• Albert Einstein was the most intelligent person in history.
• My most enjoyable class is English.
• You are the most irritating person I have ever met!

Following are two common irregular comaparative/superlative forms:

• good-better-the best
• bad-worse-the worst

---

The following guidelines apply to the comparative/superlative of mostadverbs:

1-syllable adverbs: add -er/-est

• I can run faster than you. / I can run the fastest in my class.
• She works harder than me.† / She works the hardest of all students.

Other adverbs: use more / the most*

• She ran more quickly than me.† / Of all the students she ran the most quickly.

* In informal English it is common to hear the adjectival comparative/superlative form of two-syllable adverbs. For example: She ran quicker than me.† | She ran the quickest.

† Many educated English speakers prefer to use the nominative plus a verb rather than the accusative in such comparative sentences, especially in formal situations. They say, for example, My sister is taller than I am. or She ran more quickly than I did.The alternative, omitting the verb as in the following examples, is considered to be even more formal and is avoided by most British English speakers: My sister is taller than I. orShe ran more quickly than I.

Comparative

Comparative is the name for the grammar used when comparing two things. The two basic ways to compare are using as .. as or than. Examples of each are shown below:

• She's twice as old as her sister.
• He's not as stupid as he looks!
• I'm almost as good in maths as in science.
• This book is not as exciting as the last one.
• The cafeteria is not as crowded as usual.
• Russian is not quite as difficult as Chinese.

• This computer is better than that one.
• She's stronger at chess than I am.
• It's much colder today than it was yesterday.
• Our car is bigger than your car.
• This grammar topic is easier than most others.
• I find science more difficult than mathematics.
• Today's ESL lesson was more interesting than usual.

Note: In each of the example sentences above, the comparative form of the adjective is shown. See the foot of this page for information about the comparison of adverbs.

When comparing with as .. as, the adjective does not change. When comparing with than, however, some changes are necessary, depending on the number of syllables the adjective has:

1-syllable adjectives: add -er to the adjective

• My sister is much taller than me.†
• It's colder today than it was yesterday.

Note: If the word ends: consonant-vowel-consonant, then the last consonant is usually doubled in the comparative. Examples: big-bigger, fat-fatter, hot-hotter.

2-syllable adjectives ending in -y: change the -y to -ier

• She's looking happier today.
• This grammar topic is easier than the last one.
• Why is everyone else luckier than me? †

Beware: Do not confuse adjectives and adverbs. 2-syllable adverbs ending in -y must be compared with the word more. Example: I drive more quickly (quicklier) than my brother.

Other 2-syllable adjectives: use more with the unchanged adjective

• The shops are always more crowded just before Christmas.
• Is there anything more boring than reading about grammar?
• My sister is more careful with her writing than I am with mine.

Note: The comparative of some shorter 2-syllable adjectives can be formed with -er. Examples: simple-simpler, clever-cleverer, narrow-narrower. To be sure which comparative method to use, you will need to consult a good dictionary.

Adjectives with 3 or more syllables: use more with the unchanged adjective

• Spanish grammar is more difficult than English grammar.
• My sister is much more intelligent than me.†
• I find maths lessons more enjoyable than science lessons.
• The older you get, the more irritating you become.

Cambridge Summer Course 2010

From August 1st till 14th. The video includes the trips to Ely, Cambridge lessons, music in pubs, London, Oxford and some curiosities experienced in the UK.