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.

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Hello everyone! How are you? It’s good to be with you again, and thank you for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for June 2011.

Este mes en el nivel básico, hemos practicado algunas colocaciones con los verbos. Escucha y repítelas.

I live in a flat – Espera, ¿Cuantas palabras hay en esta frase? Escucha – I live in a flat. – Pues hay cinco palabras. I - live – in - a - flat. Nota como se juntan las palabras liveina – liveina- Repite: Liveina – I live in a flat.

I work in an office ¿Cuantas palabras hay? Escucha I work in an office – Aquí hay cinco palabras y se juntan cuatro palabras workinanoffice. Repite: workinanoffice – I work in an office. I work in an office - I have children. Repite: I have two children – I have three children. I have one child. I study economics repite: I study economics. I study law . Law – derrecho – I study medicine – medicina - I study medicine. I speak French – I drive a Mazda - I read e-books – I sometimes read e-books. - I like animals – I go to the cinema – I watch television – I listen to music. No olivides la preposición ‘to’ con el verbo ‘listen’ – listen to music. Repite: Listen to music. I like listening to music. I like listening to rap music. I like listening to hip hop.

También en el cuaderno mensual habían frases para traducir. Escucha a las frases en español, e intenta traducirlas al inglés antes que yo. Ready? ¿Listos?

María no habla alemán. - María doesn’t speak German.

¿Le gusta su trabajo a Peter? - Does Peter like his job?

Leo gana mucho dinero. - Leo earns a lot of money.

¿Que hace la hermana de Dave? - What does Dave’s sister do? - What does Dave’s sister do?

Su hija (de ella) ve la tele en la cama. - Her daughter watches TV in bed.

Mike lleva gafas. - Mike wears glasses.

¿Cuantos años tiene la abuela de Debbie? - How old is Debbie’s grandmother? - How old is Debbie’s grandmother?

Simon es el hermano de Andrew. - Simon is Andrew’s brother.

Lo siento, no tengo la dirección del correo electrónico de Suzi. - I’m sorry, I don’t have Suzi’s email address. - I’m sorry, I don’t have Suzi’s email address.

¿Como están sus (de ella) padres? - How are her parents? - How are her parents?

¿Donde trabaja el marido de Sandra? - Where does Sandra’s husband work?

Su tio (de el) no esta casado. - His uncle isn’t married. - His uncle isn’t married.

La gente en Inglaterra comen muchas patatas fritas. - English people eat a lot of chips.

¡Muy bien! Very good!

In the intermediate section of this month’s cuaderno, we practiced clothes vocabulary.

I’m going to describe some clothes and you say the item of clothing I’m describing. Ready? Here we go.

You wear these on your feet when you do sport, go running, or want to dress casual – trainers

Ok, this clothing accessory is worn around your waist and stops your trousers from falling down – belt

You wear this in the winter on top of clothes to keep you warm when you go outside – coat

Men wear this to look smart, especially if they work in an office or have a formal job. The jacket and trousers are the same colour – suit

This accessory is worn around the neck in winter – scarf

These are blue trousers, originally worn by cowboys and made from denim – jeans

You wear these on your feet to go out in the street – shoes

Underwear that you also wear on your feet but under your shoes – socks

You wear these in the summer, when it’s hot and you do sport, because it’s uncomfortable to wear long trousers – shorts

You wear these in bed. They usually match, which means the top part is the same as the bottom part – pyjamas

Next, worn by ladies, this is an item of clothing that can be short in the summer, long in the winter and elegant for special occasions – dress

You bear these on your feet when you play football on grass, sometimes when you ride a motorbike or do heavy construction work. Ladies wear these ‘high shoes’ in the winter – boots

Often worn by sportsman, this comfortable item of clothing has trousers and a jacket. The Spanish word is chándal – tracksuit

This is winter wear for the top half of your body. It should keep you warm and is often worn over a shirt or a T-shirt. Other names for this are jumper and pullover – sweater

Moving on to intermediate grammar and the wonderfully exciting subject of gerunds and infinitives! Aren’t they awful? How do you know? How do you know whether to use a gerund after the verb agree or an infinitive? How do you know if the verb surprise is followed by to see or seeing? Well, I’m afraid you just have to study each individual verb and learn which group it belongs to. There’s no easy way.

The verb agree. I agree, he agrees etc. Agree is followed by the infinitive. Repeat: I agreed to see him. They have agreed to let us do the presentation. She agreed to give me a lift.

The expression to be happy is also followed by an infinitive. Repeat: I was happy to see you finished the project. I’ll be happy to discuss it tomorrow. We’re very happy to be invited. I’m happy to help you.

The gerund is used after prepositions. For example, the verb to arrest – detener - is often followed by the preposition FOR. He was arrested for stealing. Repeat: He was arrested for stealing. He was arrested for hitting his neighbour. She’ll be arrested for not paying her taxes.

When to be used to has the meaning estar acostumbrado/a, the verb following it is a gerund. For example, I’m not used to getting up early at the weekend. Repeat: I’m not used to getting up early. She’s used to working long hours. He’s used to paying for everything. Surprise is followed by the infinitive. He was surprised to discover that he’d passed his final exams. I was surprised to get the job. Repeat - I was surprised to get the job. She was surprised to see me. He’ll be surprised to hear the news.

The expression to be worth – W-O-R-T-H – to be worth + a gerund means vale la pena. It’s worth doing – vale la pena hacerlo. It might be worth taking the DVD player to be repaired. Is it worth getting a new one? Repeat: Is it worth getting a new one? It’s worth phoning the shop. It’s worth asking them. Do you think it’s worth trying?

One thing that it is worth doing is going to mansioningles.com and practicing more gerunds and infinitives. You can find them in the intermediate course and also in the grammar section.

If you want to study our courses and material without connecting to the Internet, you can buy a complete CD of La Mansión del Inglés for 24 Euros. Go to mansioningles.com and click on the CD icon on the right side of the homepage.

Food and eating out was the topic of our advanced section of this month’s newsletter. Listen to the descriptions of some food vocabulary and try to say the word before I do. Ready?

A sauce added to a salad is a ….. dressing

Another word for a main dish is ….an entrée

A small dish at the start of a meal is ….an appetizer also sometimes called a starter or a first course. Remember that we speak about courses in English and not plates. A plate is the thing you put the food on. So primer plato is the first course, Segundo plato – second course etc. We had a three-course meal, a four-course meal. And we say that Paella is a typical Spanish dish, not plate. Lasagne is an Italian dish.

If you like your steak cooked just a little, or poco hecho in Spanish, you ask for it to it to be…..rare – R-A-R-E. I don’t like to see a lot of blood on my meat so I ask for it to be cooked a little more than rare, which is… medium rare. There’s still some blood but not too much. Cook it a bit more and you get to… medium. Sometimes I like my steak medium. Some people don’t like to see any blood at all so they ask for it to be bien hecho or….well done. I know that there may be different words in Argentina, Mexico and other Spanish–speaking countries, but I think you get the idea.

So what do you call layers of alcohol-soaked sponge cake with fruit, custard and whipped cream? It’s …trifle. I don’t like trifle very much, but my dad does, and when I was growing up my mum made a trifle nearly every week. I got sick of it!

A small herb, like an onion, that is often added to potatoes, - in Spanish cebollinos - is called …..chives. Chives are great mixed in with mash potatoes, by the way. And if you add sausages you get a tasty Irish dish.

A kind of soup usually containing fish and vegetables is called….chowder – C-H-O-W-D-E-R - sopa de pescado. Clam chouder es crema de almejas.

All this talk of food is making me hungry, and it’s nearly time for dinner.

So, moving quickly on the next part of the advanced section where we practiced some food idioms.

Take what he says with a pinch of salt, means he may not be telling the truth. Be careful he’s probably lying. Take everything he says with a pinch of salt.

If you are full of beans, estas lleno de vida. Beans could be frijoles, alubias, judías, habas - green beans are judías verdes - but to be full of beans means you have a lot of energy and you are very lively. Your daughter’s full of beans today. Where does she get her energy from?

Ok, how do you say Eres la niña de mis ojos in English? You are the apple of my eye. Repeat: The apple of my eye. Or, as Stevie Wonder said, “You are the sunshine of my life”.

The expression as warm as toast, obviously means very warm – like toast! You’re feet are as warm as toast. Your hands are as warm as toast.

As you know, the English tend to put butter on their bread and not olive oil, but if you know which side your bread is buttered, you’re careful not to upset people who you know can help you, you don’t act in ways that would lose you other people's approval, or lose you an advantage. Hmmm…Pepe’s just got another promotion. He get’s on very well with everyone at work. He knows which side his bread’s buttered.

What do you say in Spanish when someone is taking your photo? We say “cheese” because if you say cheese you’re smiling. “Come on, give us a nice big smile, say cheese!”

“If you pay peanuts you get monkeys” You should give people the salary they deserve. To pay someone peanuts – cacahuetes – means to pay them very little. - Don’t take that job, you’ll be working for peanuts.

We say something is selling like hot cakes if it’s selling very well. In some countries, you say que se vende como pan caliente, o como churros, o como rosquillas. The new Apple iPhone is selling like hot cakes.

If people are like two peas in a pod they are very similar. You can tell immediately that they’re brothers. They’re like two peas in a pod. They’re two of a kind. They’re so alike.

And to be as cool as a cucumber means to be clam and unruffled – in Spanish, sereno – He took the penalty and scored to win the championship. I really don’t know how he stayed as cool as a cucumber under all that pressure.

Something is a recipe for disaster if it's going to cause trouble or serious problems. Asking your mother to stay with us for a week is a recipe for disaster. Smoking, drinking, eating badly and not exercising is a recipe for disaster.

And finally, if something is your cup of tea, it pleases you or makes you happy. This expression is more commonly used in the negative. I’m sorry, but rollerblading is not really my cup of tea. Can’t we go shopping instead?

In the Business English section this month, we looked at some works using in banking. I’ll read the definitions to you and try to say the words before I do.

The difference between credits and debits in a bank account is…the balance

The money paid to a bank for the bank's services etc are called…bank charges

The local office of a bank (in Spanish: surcursal) is called ….a branch. Repeat: Where’s your nearest branch?

A type of bank account from which money may be taken at any time, and which usually pays low or no interest is called a current account (in the UK) and a checking account (in the US).

What’s the opposite of credit? The opposite of credit is…..debit – with a ‘d’. Debit is a noun and a verb. You have a debit in your account of 500 Euros. We need to debit your account for the amount of 80 Euros.

A bank account which pays you interest on your money is called a… a deposit account (in the UK) and a savings account (in the US)

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Allí puedes ver todo el contenido del CD y bajar la primera lección gratis para probar sin compromiso.

Money lent to you by a bank that must be repaid with interest – in Spanish un préstamo – is called ….a loan – L-O-A-N – a loan.

Deficit in a bank account caused by taking out more money than is paid in (in Spanish: descubierto or sobregiro) is….an overdraft - an overdraft.

The expression to put money into a bank account is to….make a deposit or simply to deposit money into an account. Excuse me, I’d like to make a deposit of 200 Euros. I’d like to deposit 200 Euros. You can also use the phrasal verb to pay in. Can I pay this into my account, please? I’d like to pay in some money. The opposite of to make a deposit is to make a withdrawal or to withdraw money. To take money out of an account – to withdraw money. I’d like to make a withdrawal.

If you give an instruction to a bank to make regular payments to a company or a person (in Spanish: domiciliar, orden permanente de pago) it’s called …..a standing order, in English. It’s common to pay your rent by standing order and your telephone, gas and electric bills also.

And finally, if you need to see a record of transactions in your bank account, in Spanish you ask for un extracto de cuenta. In English, you ask for…a statement. A bank statement.

Well, that’s it for this week. 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 nearly 13,000 fans. Or send an email to mansionteachers@yahoo.es. And you can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit.

You can sign up for our cuaderno mensual and see all the previous newsletters and podcasts by clicking on the link on the Mansion Ingles home page.

Until next month then, take care and keep practising English! Bye!

Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de junio aquí.

Puedes ver todos los cuadernos anteriores aquí.

Puedes recibir gratis nuestro Cuaderno mensual de Inglés aquí.

The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit.

William 'Bill' Richardson

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