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Podcast Transcription
Hello and welcome to another Mansion Ingles Podcast from mansioningles.com. Recorded for October 2010. We started this month’s Newsletter with some essential English expressions – Hemos empezado el cuaderno de este mes con algunas frases claves - Escucha y repite las expresiones del inglés imprescindibles
Lo siento, no entiendo - Sorry, I don’t understand – Repeat: understand – I don’t understand – Sorry, I don’t understand.
¿Puede repetir eso, por favor? - Can you repeat that, please? - repeat that, please – can you - Can you repeat that, please?
¿Cómo se dice …x….. en Inglés? - How do you say…..x…..in English? - Repeat: In English – How do you say…? - How do you say billete in English? – billete is ticket. How do you say cambio in English? Cambio is change. How do you say vino in English? Vino is wine.
¿Qué significa ? - What does it mean? Repeat: What does it mean? ¿Qué significa este ? - What does this mean? Repeat: What does this mean? - ¿Qué significa eso? - What does that mean? Repeat: What does that mean?
¿Cómo se escribe eso? - How do you spell that? How do you spell that? How do you spell your name? - How do you spell the hotel? - How do you spell the station? - How do you spell the restaurant?
¿Cómo se pronuncia? - How do you pronounce it? - Repeat: pronounce it? - How do you? - How do you pronounce it? - How do you pronounce your name? - How do you pronounce the hotel? – Excuse me. How do you pronounce this?
Let’s move on to our list of irregular verbs. Vamos a seguir con la lista de verbos irregulares.
¿Qué es el verbo mostrar en inglés? To show Escucha y repite: show – showed – shown – con ‘n’. Can you show me the report? Have I shown you my new mobile phone? She showed me her flat. It’s horrible!
Next is the verb cerrar – to shut repeat: shut – shut – shut. The spelling is the same. Se escribe las tres formas igual S-H-U-T. It’s similar to the verb to close. Es parecido al verbo to close. “Close the door” – “Shut the door” Do you mind if I shut the window? Shut up! - ¡Cállate!
Cantar is to sing. Listen; sing – sang – sung. Los mismos sonidos vocales que ring – rang - rung. Repite: /I/ /a/ /u/ - again: /I/ /a/ /u/ - ring – rang – rung.- sing – sang – sung. Do you sing? - ¿cantas? I sang when I was at school. I love singing. I haven’t sung for years.
Otro verbo irregular con los mismos sonidos vocales es el verbo hundir – to sink repeat sink – sank – sunk. I can’t swim, I usually sink to the bottom. When did the Titanic sink?
El verbo sentarse in English is to sit. What’s the past of the verb to sit? – sat. Repeat: sit – sat – sat. Can I sit here? Do you mind if I sit here? Please sit down. Tal vez es más común decir “have a seat” seat – S-E-A-T - es el sustantivo – a seat. Escucha la pronunciación /eh/ have a – have a seat - Repeat: Have a seat – Please have a seat - please, have a seat – please, sit down. – I sat down and he asked me some questions.
Next is the verb to sleep or dormir in Spanish. Repeat: sleep – slept – slept. How many hours do you sleep? Did you sleep well – ¿Has dormido bien? – How did you sleep? ¿Como has dormido? He slept with her! I’ve slept in some very strange places.
How do you say hablar in English? To speak – Repite: speak – spoke – spoken. Otra vez – again – speak – spoke – spoken. Do you speak Spanish? I spoke to her yesterday. Have you spoken to him today? I’m sorry, I don’t speak English.
El verbo gastar is to spend. Repeat: Spend – spent – spent. How much do you spend on cigarettes? How much have you spent on clothes this month? I spent a lot of money last week. Spend a lot of money. You can also spend time – pasar el tiempo. Do you spend much time with your sister?
How do you spend your free time? – your free time – tu tiempo libre. – How do you spend your free time?
Next is the verb robar – to steal. Steal – stole – stolen. Repeat: Steal – stole – stolen. He steals cars. - He stole my mobile phone. Have you ever stolen anything?
And finally, the verb nadar – to swim. Repeat: Swim – swam – swum. The same vowel sounds as drink – drank – drunk. Sing – sang – sung. Ring – rang – rung etc. Repeat: swim – swam – swum. I swim everyday. I swim in the sea. I love swimming. I swam 2000 metres this morning. I haven’t swum in the sea for years.
¡Muy bien! Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir la segunda y tercera forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo?
show showed – shown
shut shut – shut
sing sang – sung
sink sank – sunk
sit sat – sat
sleep slept – slept
speak spoke – spoken
spend spent – spent
steal stole – stolen
swim swam - swum
We also studied questions words this month, using question words like where, who, how many, how much etc. También este mes hemos estudiado como hacer las preguntas en ingles. Escucha y repite – listen and repeat:
- How often do you speak to your mum?
- How much did you spend yesterday?
- Where did you sleep last night?
- How many metres do you usually swim?
- Who shut the window?
- Where exactly did the ship sink?
- How many songs did he sing?
- Where did they steal your bike?
- Who sat on my new Brad Pitt photo?
- Have you shown your new shoes to Maria?
In the intermediate section this month, we looked at strong (or extreme) adjectives. fantastic, wonderful, amazing, enormous, awesome, starving, tiny are strong adjectives.
Listen to some strong adjectives and try to say the base, or normal, adjective before I do. Entonces, primero escucha el adjetivo extremo, y luego tú dices el adjetivo base del mismo antes que lo digo yo. Are you ready?
1. Filthy - dirty
2. Freezing - cold
3. Enormous - big
4. Starving - hungry
5. Great - good
6. Tiny - small
7. Awful - bad
8. Furious - angry
9. Delicious - tasty
10. Terrified - afraid
11. Boiling - hot
12. Exhausted - tired
We can only use absolutely with a strong adjective. For example
“This video game is absolutely fantastic."
We can only use very with a base adjective. For example
“This chicken tastes very good.” It’s not correct to say: X"Very fantastic"X or X"absolutely good"X. No se dice.
However, we can use really with base and strong adjectives. For example
“You look really tired.” Or “That film was really awful.”
Listen and repeat
The weather was freezing.
Her brother is absolutely enormous
Your bedroom is absolutely filthy
The film was terrible
La Mansion del Ingles has become a very big website. It-s huge.
The bar was really crowded
He was absolutely furious.
Your car is really tiny
Today’s absolutely boiling outside
Also in the intermediate section, we looked at some common collocations. Let’s see what you remember.
OK, action. Is it do action, ‘make’ action or ‘take’ action? – take action. We need to take action immediately. We must do something now. When are you going to take action?
Is it ‘do’, ‘take’ or ‘make’ advantage of someone or something? – that’s right, take advantage. You should take advantage of these podcasts to improve your English aprovechar algo. You’re taking advantage of the situation.
Now, do you ‘do’, ‘make’ or ‘take’ arrangements? – You make arrangements. I can’t see you tonight. I’ve made arrangements. Have you made arrangements for next weekend?
The next expression was to make an attempt. To make an attempt means to try to do something. An attempt es un intento.I made an attempt at conversation - intenté entablar conversación.
When you apply to do something, you can say that you make an application. I made an application for a job in Dublin.
To make amends means reparar el daño - to make amends to somebody – I think in Spanish it’s desagraviar a algn - we must make amends for having scratched his car - debemos compensar por haberle rayado el coche
What’s Dar luz in English? Is it ‘make’ a baby, ‘do’ a baby, or ‘have’ a baby? – It’s have a baby. My sister’s having a baby in the spring. My wife just had her first child.
Now, is it ‘make’ the bed, or ‘do’ the bed? – Make the bed. Remember, most of the things in the house we do except the bed. We do the shopping, we do the cooking, we do the cleaning, we do the ironing, the dishes etc. but we make the bed.
To make a bid for something is pujar en subasta. The word bid – B-I-D is a verb and a noun. To bid for something or to make a bid for something. They bid twenty pounds for a painting - ofrecieron veinte libras por un cuadro.
¿Como se dice hacer negocios en inglés? – Is it ‘make’ or ‘do’? It’s do. We do business and we make money.
And, speaking of doing business, this month we looked at some expressions you could use for giving presentations in English.
When you start your presentation, the first thing you should say is “hello” and introduce yourself. For example: “Good morning everyone.” Repeat: “Good morning everyone.”
Listen: “Let me introduce myself. My name’s Craig.” Repeat: “Let me introduce myself. My name’s Craig”
To speak about something the audience may already know, say:
“As you all know…” or “I’m sure you are aware that…”
Listen: “As you all know sales have dropped by 13%.” or “I’m sure you are aware that we need a new advertising campaign.” Repeat: “As you all know…….” “I’m sure you are aware that…….”
When you show something visual say something like “Could I draw your attention to this graph.” Or “If you look at this diagram, …” or “Looking at this year’s profits, we can see here that…” Repeat: “Could I draw your attention to this graph.” “If you look at this diagram, …” “Looking at this year’s profits, we can see here that…”
Your audience may want to ask you questions. Make them feel comfortable, by saying: “If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.” Repeat: “If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
Now, perhaps you want the questions to be at the end of your presentation. Maybe you don’t want to be interrupted and distracted by questions during your presentation. So, you could say: “I’ll be happy to answer any questions at the end of my presentation. Repeat: “I’ll be happy to answer any questions at the end of my presentation.”
When you finish your presentation, don’t forget to thank your audience. Say “Thank you very much. Any questions?” or “Well, that’s all I have to say. Thank you very much for your attention.”
Moving on to the advanced section, we practised some animal idioms.
We said that if a person is as slippery as a snake, then he, or she, should not be trusted. Slippery means resbaladizo, like a slippery floor, but for a person, it means escurridizo; que no es de fiar. A slippery person is untrustworthy. You cannot trust this person. He, or she, is slippery. As slippery as a snake. Repeat: As slippery as a snake.
If you hear the expression it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, it means it was the final thing that pushed someone or something over the edge. Over the edge means sobre el límite or por encima del límite
The straw that broke the camel's back is also the last thing you are willing to accept For example: "You broke a lot of rules, but stealing money from us was the straw that broke the camel's back." You can also say the last straw or the final straw.
If you lead a dog's life, you have a terrible life, an unhappy existence. Her boss leads her a dogs life.
And, if you make a monkey out of someone, you make a fool of them. Nobody makes a monkey out of me.
If you hear the expression a leopard never changes its spots, it means that people never change. He was a liar at school, and he’s a liar now. A leopard never changes its spots.
If you let the cat out of the bag, you tell something that was supposed to be a secret. Sandra and Bob are getting married but don’t let the cat out of the bag. They don’t want anyone to know yet.
If you take the lion's share of something, you take or do the biggest bit. My husband does the lion’s share of the housework. I don’t do very much.
To be foxed means to be confused. I don’t know why the manager sacked her. I’m completely foxed by it.
Donkey work is hard or boring work. Why do I have to do all the donkey work while you get to do the interesting stuff?
And finally, a lone wolf is a person who prefers to go without the company or assistance of others. Don’t expect him to work in a team, he’s a lone wolf. He works by himself.
Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. Remember to visit our online shop where you can find our business English cd, our First Certificate cd for the Cambridge FCE exam, our audio cds and many more. Just go to the mansioningles.com webpage and click on the cds on the right side of the home page. You can also follow us on Twitter, just search for MansionTwit, and don’t forget to join our growing community of students and teachers on our Facebook fan page.
See you next time!
The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit. Also by Azhrak, the track was Below the Arctic Circle. Creative Commons licence from Jamendo.com