Aprender ingles gratis con La Mansion del Ingles. Un podcast para mejorar la gramatica, el vocabulario y la pronunciacion del ingles. Una leccion del ingles con ejemplos y ejercicios.
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Well hello again everyone and welcome to this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for October 2011.
En el nivel básico este mes hemos practicado el pasado del verbo To be (ser o estar). To be or not to be. That is the question! ¿Te acuerdas como se dice el verbo To be en el presente? I… am, you…. are, he….. is, she…. is, it….. is, we…… are, they…… are. Good. El pasado del verbo to be tiene dos formas. Was W-A-S y were W-E-R-E. I was, he was, she was, it was – we were, you were, they were. La pronunciación del were puede ser un poco difícil. El sonido vocal es /ɜː/ repite: were. We were – Cuando were esta colocada en medio de una frase normalmente se pronuncia débil con el sonido /ə/ Repite: /ə/ - cambia a /wə/. Repite:/wə/- we were happy – we were late – we were early – we were excited – we were going to work – we were living in Madrid! – We were there – Very good. Muy bien!
Ahora escucha y repite algunas frases del cuaderno de este mes.
Where were you born? - ¿Dondé naciste? – Where were you born? – you born – were you born – Where were you born?
I was born in London – Where were you born? -I was born in London – Where were you born?
I was born in a hospital! Of course! – ¡por supuesto! - of couse - I was born in hospital!
Were you born in Argentina? – in Argentina? Were you – Were you born in Argentina?
Where was your sister born? – your sister born – Where was your sister born?
Where were you yesterday? – Where were you? – I phoned you – Where were you at 11 o’clock? – I was looking for you. Where were you all morning? – Where were you on Saturday night? – on Saturday night – Where were you on Saturday night? Who were you with? - Who - were - you - with? Who were you with on Saturday? Were you with him? Were you with Paul on Saturday?
Where were you last night?
Were you sick last week? Sick significa enfermo. Repite. Were you sick last week? – Last week - la semana pasada – last week – Were you sick last week?
What was the date yesterday? The date – la fecha – What was the date yesterday? o What was yesterday’s date? Repite: What was yesterday’s date? Was it the 16th? Was it the 17th? What was it?
Este mes también hemos repasado los opuestos de algunos adjetivos. Ahora voy a decir los adjetivos y tu tienes que decir el opuesto en ingles antes que lo digo yo. ¿Listos? Ready?
High (alto) high – el opuesto es….low (bajo) low
hot – cold
empty – full – F-U-L-L- full
dry (seco) dry – wet
interesting – boring
dangerous – safe
the opposite of weak W-E-A-K weak – strong
healthy – unhealthy o sick
beautiful – ugly
fat – thin
¡Estupendo! – That’s great!
Los verbos en inglés, como en otros idiomas, se juntan con palabras y frases específicas. Esto se llama collocation – la colocación. Por ejemplo. Se dice do the washing up (lavar los platos) y no X make the washing up X. Se dice ‘do the washing up’, con el verbo ‘to do’. Se dice ‘have a coffee’ (tomar un café) y no X take a coffee. X, como se dice en español. ’Have a coffee’ – tomar un café.
Escucha y repite algunas frases del ejercicio en el cuaderno de octubre.
Have a beer, have a coffee, have breakfast, have a sandwich, have some pizza, have some wine, have a drink, have lunch with my family, Let’s have dinner on Saturday.
Listen - Listen to music, listen to a song, listen to the Beatles, listen to Snow Patrol, listen to the radio, Listen to me! Listen to me! Please listen!
El verbo ‘to do’. Do the ironing (the ironing - la plancha). Do the ironing - Do the washing up, do the shopping
The verb ‘to watch’ W-A-T-C-H - Watch a film, watch the TV, watch a film at the cinema, watch a football match, watch basketball (baloncesto) – watch basketball.
Go for a walk (pasear) Go for a walk - I’m going for a walk. Go to bed, go to the beach, go shopping, I’m going shopping, go on holiday, When are you going on holiday? - go to the cinema – Let’s go to the cinema! - go to a restaurant, to go out is salir. I’m going out – Where are you going? – I’m going out.
Great! – Now, moving on to our intermediate section this month we looked at some word families and some confusing vocabulary. But before that I want to talk to you about our PACK COMPLETO. The Mansion Ingles Pack ahorro completo is a special offer of ALL of our cds at a great price. All 9 Mansion Ingles cds. So, that’s our complete web site on Mansion CD, Mansion Business for Business English at intermediate level, There’s Mansion First for the Cambridge FCE exam. There’s Mansion Travel with dialogues and useful conversations and expressions for travelling abroad. There’s Mansion Listen for advanced listenings, Mansion Books for lovers of literature, and Mansion Auto 1 and 2 in MP3 audio for beginners. So that’s all 8 CDs plus a free cd of 100 software programs to help you learn English. All this for only 99 Euros. You save 112 Euros, and we pay the postage wherever you are in the world. Now that’s a good deal. Es una oferta muy buena. For more details, and to order the cds, just click the cd icon on the right side of the home page at mansioningles.com.
Now, where were we? Where were we? Ah yes, word families. Now, the word “strong” what is it a noun? a verb? An adjective? A strong man – yep! It’s an adjective. So, if strong is an adjective, What’s the noun? Strength. – S-T-R-E-N-G-T-H- Your strength is impressive Mr. Bond! What are your strengths? Ok, so what’s the verb of strength? - To strengthen. Muchas de estas palabras se forman el verbo con el sufijo en - EN. For example, wide (ancho) – to widen, length – to lengthen – broad – to broaden – short – to shorten etc.
We need to strengthen our relationship.
How do you say sordo in English? – Deaf – D-E-A-F – Are you deaf? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. I’m a little deaf in my right ear. What’s the verb? – to deafen. If a sound is very loud it deafens you. The noise at the concert was deafening. The noun of deaf is deafness.
What’s the opposite of short? – long. Short and long are adjectives. The noun of long is…..length, with a ‘g’, L-E-N-G-T-H and the verb is to….lengthen, good! What’s the noun of short? – shortness. Do you remember? A shortness of breath. I suffer from a shortness of breath. The verb of short is…..to shorten. Would you mind shortening the sleeves on this jacket? The sleeves – las mangas. Would you mind shortening the sleeves on this jacket? They’re much too long.
Deep is an adjective (profundo) What’s the noun? – depth – D-E-P-T-H. We dived to a depth of 12 metres. What’s the verb? – to deepen. The mystery deepened.
How do you say ancho o ancha in English? – wide. How wide is the balcony? What’s the noun? The noun of wide is…width – W-I-D-T-H. What’s the width of the garage? The width is more important than the length. The verb of width is to….. widen. We’re having our patio widened.
Now, what’s the opposite of strength? – weakness. Weakness is a noun. A popular question in a job interview is “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” - “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”. The verb is to weaken. The earthquake has weakened the bridge. earthquake – terremoto. What’s the adjective of weaken? Weak. She has a weak heart. I prefer weak tea. W-E-A-K - and the same pronunciation as week (semana) W-E-E-K.
And lastly, the adjective high – alto / alta. How high is that block of flats? What’s the noun of high? Height. How do you spell it? H-E-I-G-H-T. What’s the height of that building? Wearing socks with sandals is definitely not the height of fashion. Hmmm…someone should tell my dad that.
Next we looked at some confusing vocabulary. If you have any questions about difficult or confusing vocabulary, go to Facebook.com/mansioningles and post a question. I’ll do my best to help you and answer your questions. If I can’t there’s usually someone on our Facebook fan page who can help.
Apartment is the American English word for piso, apartamento. In British English, we say flat. Flats are on different floors in blocks of flats (or apartment buildings in the US). How do you say la planta baja in English? – The ground floor. I live on the ground floor. I have a ground floor flat. Storey S-T-O-R-E-Y also means planta. It’s used to describe the height of a building. For example, I work in a 30-storey building – Trabajo en un edificio de 30 pisos. How many storeys does this building have?
An advertisement es un anuncio. Sometimes advertisement is shortened to advert or just ad – A-D. There’s a great ad on the TV for the new Ford Focus. A warning es una advertencia. A word of warning, don’t be late. – Una advertencia, no llegues tarde. The verb is to warn – W-A-R-N. I’m warning you!
A speech es un discurso, and it often collocates, or goes together, with the verb make. You make a speech or give a speech. People often make speeches at weddings and on formal occasions.
Advice is consejo. Remember that advice is an uncountable noun in English. Repeat: Can I give you some advice? Let me give you a piece of advice.
Notice is un aviso. Repeat: Did you see the notice on the wall? Notice is also a verb: He pretended not to notice me - Hizo como si no me hubiera visto.
In the dictonary, publicity se traduce como publicidad, pero no confundas publicity con advertising. Publicity se refiere a la publicidad que se consigue sin buscarla. For example, “Accusing this bank of unfair competition has only given them some publicity” - Acusar a este banco de competencia desleal les ha dado cierta publicidad), mientras que advertising hace referencia a la publicidad por la cual se paga: For example, “How much did they spend on their advertising campaign?”, ¿Cuánto gastaron en su campaña publicitaria?
And I apologise for my bad Spanish pronunciation.
In the advanced section this month, the first exercise looked at advanced vocabulary collocation. In the first example we saw the expression “To set aside a few minutes” If you set aside some time, you save a period of time to do something specific. I try to set aside half an hour before I go to bed to do some reading. You know, a lot of people say to me “Oh I can’t do that. I can’t study English, I don’t have the time” Well, a lot of people do have time to do stuff. They need to set time aside. I hate to say it, but it’s true. I hate to say it is another strong collocation. Yesterday a friend said to me, “I hate to say it Craig, but you’ve put on a lot of weight lately.” Yes, I know.” I said, “I must set aside an hour every day for exercise.”
Next was to make a purchase. The verb to purchase means to buy - comprar. I think it’s used more in American English than British. I often hear Americans say things like “I’m going to purchase a mew mobile phone” for example. Purchase is used in British English as a verb and a noun, but it usually has a more formal use. “When did you make your purchase, sir?” – “Did you purchase the item at this store, madam?”
The verb to prove can mean probar, verificar, comprobar, but in the example the expression was to prove yourself. Give me the opportunity to prove myself. “He was given three months to prove himself” - Le dieron tres meses para que demostrara su valía.
The word prompt P-R-O-M-P-T means rápido, pronto. To take prompt action is a strong collocation. Also, “He must receive prompt treatment” - Se lo debe tratar inmediatamente or sin demora. And, “They are prompt in their payments” - Pagan puntualmente
The last collocation was closing date. I don’t know why we don’t say “ending date” or “shutting date”, but we don’t. Closing date means fecha tope. There was another translation for fecha tope in the business section of this month’s newsletter. Do you remember it? It was deadline. The deadline for the project is May 25th. The closing date is May 25th.
Ok, let’s see if you remember the idioms from this month’s collection. I’ll say an idiom in Spanish and you say the equivalent idiom in English before I do. Then you should repeat the idiom in English to practice pronunciation. Ok, ready?
A quien madruga, Dios le ayuda. - "The early bird catches the worm."
Les da uno la mano y se toman hasta el codo. - “Give him an inch and he'll take a mile.”
No es oro todo lo que reluce. - “All that glitters is not gold.”
Caras vemos, corazones no sabemos / El hábito no hace al monje. - “Don't judge a book by its cover.”
Another one:
Moro viejo nunca será buen cristiano. (Hmm that rounds a bit racist to me) Moro viejo nunca será buen cristiano. In English?...- "A leopard can't change its spots."
Del dicho al hecho hay mucho trecho - "Easier said than done."
Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente - In English?...- "Out of sight out of mind."
And finally, Perro ladrador, poco mordedor. - That was difficult to say. I’ll try again: Perro ladrador, poco mordedor. In English? - “His bark is worse than his bite.”
My boss, he..he’s ok really. My boss, his bark is worse than his bite.
Good! Ok, in Business English this month we practised a few questions that you may be asked in a job interview. Of course, it’s very difficult to know exactly what you’ll be asked in an interview before you go in, but I think there are some things that you can prepare and think about before you find yourself in the hot seat.
You should definitely research the company before you go. Find out as much as you can about the company’s culture and the company’s history. Use Google and use the company’s website. When you’re answering questions, you can often give answers that relate directly to the company you are interviewing with, if you know the company’s background.
Anyway, I’ll read the questions from the cuaderno to you now. Err..you should pause after each question and answer them as best you can. Then, then press play and listen to my suggested answers. So let’s imagine that you are at an interview now, and tell me….
What is your greatest weakness?
I like to make sure that my work is perfect, so I tend to perhaps spend a little too much time checking it. However, I've come to a good balance by setting up a system to ensure everything is done correctly the first time.
What is your greatest strength?
Well, my time management skills are excellent and I'm organized, efficient, and take pride in excelling at my work.
How would you describe yourself?
I'm a creative thinker. I like to explore alternative solutions to problems and I have an open mind about what will work best.
Do you take work home with you?
When I need to, that’s not a problem. I realize the importance of meeting deadlines and getting work done on time.
How many hours do you normally work?
Hmmm…It depends. Working a lot of hours doesn't always mean high productivity. I typically work as many hours as necessary in order to do get the job done effectively.
How do you handle stress and pressure?
I react to situations, rather than to stress. That way, the situation’s handled and doesn't become stressful. I actually work better under pressure and I've found that I enjoy working in a challenging environment.
What motivates you?
I've always been motivated by the desire to do a good job at whatever position I'm in. I want to excel and be successful in my job, both for my own personal satisfaction and for my employer.
Do you remember the meaning of the following vocabulary from the interviews?
to handle – What does that mean? – to handle - In Spanish tratar, manejar
tend to - soler, tener tendencia
efficient - eficiente, eficaz
pride - to take pride in something. Pride is orgullo
deadline, you should remember - fecha tope o fecha límite
challenging – I enjoy working in a challenging environment – challenging - que supone o constituye un reto or un desafío
environment - ambiente
desire means deseo
and to excel - I want to excel and be successful - destacar, sobresalir – I want to excel in my work.
Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks to all of you for listening. And, 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 fans. Or send an email to: mansionteachers@yahoo.es. You can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit.
Y también si tienes una pregunta sobre cualquier cosa relacionada con el aprendizaje del inglés o la cultura inglesa, grábalo en un fichero de mp3 y mándanoslo por email – como un adjunto. Vamos a incluir vuestras preguntas y las respuestas en los podcasts mensuales del cuaderno. Ok?
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 octubre aquí.
http://www.cuadernodeingles.com/cuaderno_mes/versionweb_mesesanteriores/cuaderno_11_oct.htm
Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí. http://www.cuadernodeingles.com/
Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí. http://www.mansioningles.net/formulario/altacuaderno.asp