Aprender ingles gratis con La Mansion del Ingles. Un podcast para mejorar la gramatica, el vocabulario y la pronunciacion del inglés. Una leccion del ingles con ejemplos y ejercicios.
Learn English free with podcasts from La Mansion del Ingles. Improve your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. This English lesson contains examples and exercises.
Hello and welcome to another Mansion Ingles podcast from mansioningles.com How are you? It’s good to be back with you again, and thank you for downloading this podcast, recorded for April 2011.
En el nivel básico este mes habían adjetivos que van con sustantivos, como a fast car – un coche rápido, a beautiful girl – una chica guapa. En inglés, normalmente se colocan el adjetivo delante del nombre y no detrás como en español. Escucha y repite:
A fast car. An expensive car. A Ferrari is an expensive car. It’s made in Italy, It’s an Italian car. Is George Clooney attractive? Is he handsome? Where’s he from? He’s from the US. He’s an American actor. New York is a big city. It’s a busy city. The Eiffel Tower is French. The North Pole is very cold. It’s a cold place. - hace mucho frio – It’s a cold place. Where’s Mount Kilimanjaro? It’s in Africa. It’s African. - It’s African, it’s high and it’s very impressive.
Escucha los siguientes adjetivos en español y intenta decir los en inglés antes que yo. Ready? ¿Listos?
pequeño small
frío cold
bueno good
rápido fast
sucio dirty
triste sad
alto high
difícil difficult
nuevo new
caro expensive
rico rich
gordo fat
fuerte strong
aburrido boring
largo long
Well done! – ¡muy bien!
In the intermediate section this month, we studied some pronouns and descriptions of vocabulary. Remember, we use who for people, where for places and which for things. Whose –W-H-O-S-E means de quien. Whose is this 50-Euro note? ¿De quien es esté billete de 50 Euros? – It’s mine!
Listen and repeat some examples:
A vegetarian is a person who doesn’t eat meat.
A microwave is a machine which cooks food quickly.
A bus stop is a place where you wait for a bus.
Whose dog is that?
Also in the intermediate section, we looked at the pronunciation of the –ed endings for regular verbs in the past. The pronunciation rules, las reglas, are explained in the newsletter, in the cuaderno, but there are 3 endings: a voiced ‘d’ sound, an unvoiced ‘t’ sound and an ‘id’ sound. There isn’t much difference between the ‘t’ and the ‘d’, between ‘listened’ and ‘hoped’, for example, but there is a difference if you make a mistake with the ‘id’. There’s a difference between travelled and travel-ed and between arrived and arriv-ed and between called and call-ed. The only time you pronounce the –ed as /id/ is when the last sound of the verb is a ‘t’ or a ‘d’. For example start – started or end – ended. Now listen and repeat some verbs in their groups:
/t/
/d/
/ɪd/
stopped
called
waited
escaped
happened
started
laughed
phoned
wanted
watched
carried
contacted
relaxed
arrived
ended
kissed
travelled
repeated
liked
listened
rented
hoped
studied
needed
danced
lived
hated
Moving on to the advanced section this month, we looked at some slang and informal expressions.
To get into can mean to become involved in, or start doing something. For example, I got into teaching about 18 years ago. My God, is it really that long ago? Doesn’t time fly when you’re enjoying yourself? It seems like only yesterday!
Grass is slang for marijuana. Also there’s weed, ganja, funk, Indian hemp, giggle bush, splif, reefer, dope, kush, Mary-J, herb, green, draw, purple haze, roach, smoke, oregano, zippiddee doo, moon walk, Jb, sensi, bud, shake, cookie monster, pot and, my personal favourite, Devil’s lettuce.
To throw up means to vomit. I threw up after that take away last night.
And the phrasal verb to back out means to retreat from an agreement, deal or promise. I can’t believe the investors backed out. Now what are we going to do?
To bat an eye is a bit like blinking. If you don’t bat an eye, you show no surprise nor any sign of guilt or shame. When they asked her about the crime, she didn't bat an eye. - Her expression didn't change.
If you face the music, you accept the unpleasant consequences of your actions.
I badly scratched my dad’s car and eventually I had to go home and face the music.
Vibes are feelings. Repeat these examples: I’m getting really bad vibes from my girlfriend. Hey, I love the vibes I’m getting from your new designs. I’ve got some great vibes about this music.
You can use mean as an adjective for something a person does well. She’s a mean guitarist - She’s a great guitarist. I heard you’re a pretty mean World of Warfare player.
We also practised some adjectives and their dependant prepositions. Listen and repeat:
What are you so excited about?
It’s very different from his last work.
I’m so jealous of your review.
What’s he famous for?
What are you afraid of?
What’s wrong with you?
We’re very grateful for your help.
She’s angry at me for loving her.
Who’s responsible for safety?
He’s very proud of his track record.
He’s very disappointed in his son.
I’m absolutely crazy about her!
What are you going to invest in?
Are you aware of the dangers?
What’s he boasting about now?
She should be ashamed of herself.
There were many more expressions and vocabulary in the business section this month. For example, when you answer the phone say “Who’s calling please?” Repeat: Who’s calling please?
The phrasal verb to bring up means to mention. Why didn’t you bring it up during the meeting? Why didn’t you mention it during the meeting? I think you should bring it up next time.
Remember, “Where does he work?” is a direct question. “Do you know where he works?” is an indirect question. Indirect questions do not have the auxiliary verbs do, does or did. Repeat: “Do you know where he works?” - Could you tell me where he works? - Would you mind telling me where he works? - I was wondering where he works.
Skills are habilidades in Spanish. In a job interview, you may hear “What are your skills?” or “How would you rate your personal skills?” or “What computer skills do you have?” It’s a good idea to include any relevant job skills on your CV.
“I was wondering if you could….” Is a very polite way of asking someone to do something. Repeat:
I was wondering if you could send me the report.
I was wondering if you could give me a lift to the airport.
I was wondering of you could send an email to him.
Another polite way of asking is “Would you mind…..” ¡Ojo! “When Would you mind…” is followed by a verb it’s the I-N-G form (the gerund). Repeat:
Would you mind making a reservation?
Would you mind sending it as an attachment?
Would you mind meeting me at my hotel?
You can use the expression “Would you like to….” to make an invitation. It’s similar to “Do you want to….” but it’s a bit more polite. Repeat:
Would you like to meet me for lunch?
Would you like to go for a drink after the meeting?
Would you like to have dinner with me?
When were you born? ¿Cuando naciste? That’s quite difficult to say. When were -When were you born? Repeat: born – you born – were you born – When were you born? – When were you born? - Where - ¿Dónde? Where were you born? repeat: Where were you born?
A fortnight is two weeks. In a fortnight’s time is two weeks from now. The day before yesterday is two days ago. The day after tomorrow is two days from now. Repeat: The day before yesterday. The day after tomorrow. In a fortnight’s time.
Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks to all of you for listening. If you want to contact us you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés and join our growing community of over 11,000 fans. Or send an email to mansionteachers@yahoo.es. You can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit.
Until next month then, take care and keep practising English! Bye!
The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit.
Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de abril aquí.
Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí.
Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí.