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Craig Wealand
For Spanish speakers learning English. Level B1 and above. | Mejorar tu ingles con nuestros podcasts. Desde el nivel B1.
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Feb 22, 2011 • 19min
December 2010
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. Podcast Transcription Hello, and thank you for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast, recorded for December 2010. Merry Christmas to you and your families from all of us here at La Mansión del Inglés. Yes, Christmas is coming and the turkeys are getting fat. Actually, so am I with all the lovely Spanish food that I’ve been eating and all the Christmas dinners and lunches I’ve been going to. - Estoy poniendo mucho peso – I’m putting on weight. Maybe I’ll start the diet next year, in 2011. – to start a diet or go on a diet – hacer regimen. I’m on a diet – Estoy de regimen. Let’s begin with some Christmas vocabulary – vamos a empezar con un poco de vocabulario de navidad Regalos de Navidad are Christmas presents. Repeat: Christmas presents. Another word for present is gift. G-I-F-T gift. I bought my mum a Play Station as a Christmas gift this year. I hope she likes it. If she doesn’t, I’ll have to play with it. ¿Cómo se dice – how do you say – Arbol de Navidad in English? Christmas tree. And ¿muñeco de nieve? – a snowman – repeat: snowman. Reno is reindeer. How many reindeer does Santa have? Santa has 9 reindeer, I think. When Santa brings presents, or gifts, he goes down the chimney – chimenea – repeat: He goes down the chimney. And he puts presents in calcetines de navidad or in English “Christmas stockings”. Repeat: Christmas stockings. I never had a Christmas stocking when I was a child. But my parents used to leave one present at the bottom of my bed for me to open when I woke up on Christmas morning. Later, when I was older, I discovered this was to keep me quiet and occupied while my parents slept late in bed! We studied irregular verbs this year (hemos estudiado este año los verbos irregulares) and in the newsletter (el cuaderno) this month there was a small test. Listen and repeat the sentences: Escucha y repite las siguientes frases: Who drank all the beer? – beer – all the – all the beer – Who drank? - Who drank all the beer? Have you done your homework? Have you done…..¿Has hecho…? Have you done - your homework – tus deberes – Have you done your homework? Did you do your homework? – Did you do….? ¿Hiciste….? - Did you do your homework? What presents did you get for Christmas? For – for – for Christmas – What presents – did you get – did you get - What presents did you get for Christmas? My grandmother usually gives me money for Christmas. – gives me money –gives me money for Christmas. - My grandmother usually gives me money for Christmas. Where were… - Where were you on Christmas day? ¿Es un poco difícil decir no? Where were – where – Where were – Where were you? – My God, where were you? – Where were you? - Where were you on Christmas day? - Where were you last night? Where were you yesterday? – Where were you all day? – Where were you on Christmas Day? I don’t usually drive at Christmas. (Remember - ¡OJO! Con los adverbios de frecuencia como usually, always, sometimes, never etc. se van justo antes del verbo principal y van mucho con el tiempo presente simple The present simple tense for habits por los habitos – Repeat: I always drink alcohol at Christmas - I always drink alcohol at Christmas - so I never drive. - so I never drive. - I often take the bus - I often take the bus - and I sometimes go by train. - and I sometimes go by train. - I don’t usually drive at Christmas. - I don’t usually drive at Christmas. What has Father Christmas brought you this year? - What has Father Christmas brought you this year? Repeat: – bring – brought – brought – brought you – brought you this year – Father Christmas brought you this year - What has Father Christmas brought you this year? - Who do you eat Christmas dinner with? Repeat: Who do you…? – Who do you eat…? – Who do you eat dinner with? - Who do you eat Christmas dinner with? I’m sorry, I forgot your present. – Forget – forgot….and……. forgotten! Have you forgotten - ¿Has olvidado? – Did you forget? – ¿olvidaste? – repeat: I forgot your present. - I’m sorry – I’m so sorry, I forget your present. John Lennon died on 8th December 1980. 30 years later and, unfortunately, war is not over and the world is not at peace. If John were alive today, I’m sure he would be working and singing and trying for peace. His music lives on. I put the link (el enlace) to Maroon 5 and not to John because the sound quality is a bit better and I think it’s a little easier for you to understand the lyrics (las letras). Don’t try to cook the Christmas fruitcake in the cuaderno, at least not with the whisky - por lo menos no con el whisky. It was a joke. – fue un chiste - Do you remember the vocabulary? What was ‘level’ – a level teaspoon = a ras – a level teaspoon, or a level tablespoon or a level cup (in American English). What was ‘to beat’ B – E – A- T = batir – beat the eggs Fluffy was suave y esponjoso – For example, a fluffy pillow or a fluffy teddy bear – fluffy. Stuck is atascado – I got stuck in the lift yesterday. The mixture is stuck to the sides of the bowl. To sift was tamizar – sift the flour (la harina) or sift the sugar. To strain S-T-R-A-I-N was filtrar / escurrir – to strain the liquid. Bueno, aquí viene el anuncio, y sin vergüenza porque si no sabes que comprar para las personas importantes en tu vida este navidad, ¿porque no compras un cd de la mansion del ingles? o 2? o 3cds? , o el pack de regalo por solo 99 euros y ahorras 112 euros. Recebes todos nuestros cds en el pack completo y pagamos nosotros los gastos de envio, y también recibes un cd de regalo. Además, solo por navidad, y solo para le gente que apuntan al cuaderno mensual, ofrecemos un descuento de 5 euros. ¿Qué?, ¿No es bastante regalo para las personas importantes en tu vida? Pues compre un pack de ahorro para la gente que no son importantes, pero cómpralo. Puedes encontrar los detalles de todos nuestros cds y comprar los en nuestra página mansioningles.com. Haz click, cliquear, al lado derecha de la página en la imagen de los cds. OK, listen and repeat the following Christmas words and expressions. Escucha y repite: una tarjeta de Navidad - a Christmas card - a Christmas card adornos de Navidad - Christmas decorations - Christmas decorations un villancico - Christmas carol - Christmas carol el acebo - holly - holly la comida de Navidad - Christmas dinner - Christmas dinner un calendario de Adviento - Advent calendar – an advent calendar un pesebre - a crib – C-R-I-B, crib or a manger – M-A-N-G-E-R, manger la misa del gallo - Midnight Mass - Midnight Mass, los Reyes Magos - the Three Kings or the Three Wise Men - wise W-I-S-E means sabio the noun is wisdom – W-I-S-D-O-M, wisdom. “I admire him for his great wisdom”. un belén in English is a nativity scene - a nativity scene (Belén in English, the town, is Bethlehem) un pastor – a shepherd - a shepherd. A person who looks after sheep. ¡OJO! – Sheep is the same in singular as plural. 1 sheep, 2 sheep, 3 sheep, A lot of sheep. A shepherd looks after sheep. And finally un burro - a donkey, D-O-N-K-E-Y – donkey. OK, now repeat the dias festivos – the holidays What’s Nochebuena? Do you remember? - Christmas Eve - Christmas Eve Día de navidad - Christmas Day - Christmas Day diciembre 26, December 26th is called – Boxing Day - Boxing Day. Why Boxing Day? I think because years ago rich people gave their servants presents the day after Christmas. They gave them a box. In the box was probably a small gift or some money. So Boxing Day, the day that rich people gave their servants a box for Christmas. ¿Nochevieja? What’s Nochevieja? - New Year's Eve - New Year's Eve El día de año nuevo - New Year's Day And finally, la Noche de Reyes - Twelfth Night That’s it for this month and for this year! Have a very Merry Christmas, a wonderful holiday with your family and friends, and a Happy New Year. We’ll be back again in January with another Mansion Ingles podcast from Mansioningles.com

Feb 22, 2011 • 32min
November 2010
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. Podcast Transcription Hello and welcome to another Mansion Ingles Podcast from mansioningles.com. Recorded for November 2010. We started this month’s Newsletter with some more essential English expressions – Hemos empezado el cuaderno de este mes con más frases claves que vas a necesitar para defenderte en inglés- Escucha y repite las expresiones. Repite varios veces y intenta imitar la entonación. Buenos días - Good morning – good morning ¿Qué tal?- How are you? – howa – howa you? – howa you? Bien, gracias. - Fine, thanks. – fine thanks Hasta luego - See you later Hay 3 palabras SEE YOU LATER, pero el YOU se dice muy débil. Escucha y repite: ya – ya - seeya – later – later – seeya – seeya later – seeya later ¿Cómo te llamas? - What’s your name? Hay 4 palabras – WHAT IS YOUR NAME. – el WHAT y el IS se juntan escucha: WHAT IS = what’s repeat: what’s. YOUR se dice muy débil. Escucha: ye - repeat: ye. What’s ye – what’s ye name? Ahora con entonación. Repite: What’s ye name? - What’s ye name? Me llamo……… - My name’s….. Hay 3 palabras MY NAME IS…., pero normalmente el IS se junta con el NAME para hacer una contracción. Escucha y repite: My name is = my name’s – My name’s Craig. Hi, my name’s Juan. Hello, my name’s Luis. What’s your name? Mucho gusto. - Nice to meet you - Nice to meet you. Aquí hay 4 palabras NICE TO MEET YOU. El TO se dice como /te/. Escucha – Nicete - Nicete meet you. Escucha y repite: meet you – nicete – nicete meet you – nice to meet you. Good! – ¡bueno! - Let’s move on to our list of irregular verbs. Vamos a seguir con la lista de verbos irregulares. La última lista de los verbos irregulares comunes. ¿Qué es el verbo coger en inglés? Bueno, en America latino creo que tiene una significa vulgar como to fuck en ingles. Creo que se usa el verbo agarrar para no crear confusión. Pero en España, coger normalmente es To take Escucha y repite: take – took –taken– con ‘n’. Repeat: take – took –taken. Please take some cake. I took the last train home. – Have you taken your holiday yet? Dar y coger = give and take. Next is the verb enseñar – to teach repeat: teach – taught – taught. El sonido vocal es /au/ - taught. Repite: taught – como bought, caught and thought. I taught tennis years ago. Have you taught children? How many hours do you teach? El verbo decir is to tell. Listen; tell – told – told. Los verbos Tell y say tiene casi la misma significación. La diferencia es que un objeto directo sigue inmediatamente al verbo tell. Tell me – tell us etc. El verbo say nunca sigue un objeto. Es normalmente seguido por that (que) o el estilo indirecto. - I told him my name = Yo le conte a el mi nombre. - He told us your name = El nos contó tu nombre. - Then she said "I love you" = Entonces ella dijo "te amo". ¿Qué es el verbo pensar en ingles? - to think. Y qué es el pasado del verbo think? – It’s thought. El mismo sonido vocal del verbo taught. Repite: think – thought – thought - /au/ thought. I thought about you – Pensé en ti. – I don’t think so – no lo creo. Repite: I don’t think so. – Do you think so? I don’t think so. What are you thinking about? ¿Qué estas pensando? I’ve thought about you a lot. Next is the verb understand or entender in Spanish. Repeat: understand – understood - understood. I’m sorry I don’t understand – lo siento, no entiendo – I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Do you understand? – I understood you perfectly. Do you understand Spanish? Yes, I understand, but I can’t speak it. How do you say despertarse in English? To wake – aunque to wake es un verbo principal, es más común decir to wake up. Wake up es un verbo frasal - a phrasal verb – un verbo compuesto con dos partes. Repite: wake up – el pasado es woke up. What time did you wake up today? I woke up at 7. What time do you usually wake up? So, wake – woke – woken Repite: wake – woke – woken. Good! Now, llevar puesto in English is to wear. Repite: wear –wore–worn. Escucha y repite los sonido vocales: /ea/ wear – /or/ - wore - /or/ worn – con ‘N’. What do you wear for work? What did you wear yesterday? I wore my brown shirt. What are you wearing tonight? ¿Qué te vas a poner esta noche? – Have you worn your new shoes yet? Next is the verb ganar en ingles – to win. Repeat: win – won – won. He usually wins. Did you win the competition? Manchester United won yesterday. How much money have you won? ¡Ojo! Se utiliza el verbo ganar en español para hablar del trabajo y los sueldos. ¿Cuánto ganas al mes? Pero en inglés hay otro verbo – to earn. How much money do you earn? I earn a good salary – gano un buen sueldo. She earns a lot of money. So earn money and win a competition. Earn a good salary and win the lottery. And finally, the verb escribir – write – W-R-I-T-E. Repeat: write – wrote – written. Otra vez write – wrote – written. I write a lot of emails. How do you write your name? I wrote to my insurance company. How many words have you written? I’m thinking of writing a book. ¡Muy bien! Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir la segunda y tercera forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo? take teach tell think understand wake wear win write took taught told thought understood woke wore won wrote taken taught told thought understood woken worn won written Very good! Well done! ¡Muy bien! – y con el verbo to write hemos terminado nuestra lista de los verbo irregulares en inglés. El mes que viene vamos hacer un pequeño ‘test’ de los verbos que hemos estudiado durante los últimos meses, así que si quieres repasar los verbos, consulta los cuadernos anteriores en www.cuadernodeingles.com hemos empezado estudiar los verbos irregulares en el mes de abril 2010. Ahora escucha y repite algunas frases con los verbos de este mes en un contexto. Si te resulta más fácil, utiliza el botón de pausa en tu reproductor de mp3. Primero, revisamos un poco de vocabulario ¿Como se dice despertar en inglés? – to wake up ¿Cómo se dice correo electronico? – email ¿Cómo se dice galleta en inglés? – biscuit – y en el inglés Americano? – cookie. ¿Cómo se dice el precio? – the price ¿Cómo se dice camisa? - shirt Ahora escucha y repite las frases: What time did you wake up this morning? - What time did you wake up this morning? Did Barcelona win yesterday? - Did Barcelona win yesterday? I don’t write many emails. - I don’t write many emails. Who took the last biscuit? - Who took the last biscuit? Have you taught Tai Chi before? - Have you taught Tai Chi before? Did she tell you the price? - Did she tell you the price? I’m sorry, I don’t understand - I’m sorry, I don’t understand I don’t think so. - I don’t think so. I can’t wear that shirt, I wore it yesterday. - I can’t wear that shirt, I wore it yesterday. Moving on to the intermediate section, and in last month’s podcast, in October, we looked at strong or extreme adjectives - freezing, filthy, enormous, exhausted etc. Remember? Now, this month, let’s look at the order of adjectives before a noun – el orden de los adjetivos. Remember, it’s the opposite to Spanish. Not the car red – el coche o carro rojo, but the red car. Not the girl beautiful – la chica guapa o linda, but the beautiful girl. And the order of adjectives before a noun in English is stricter – más estricto, riguroso – than in Spanish. The order is as follows: First, adjectives of opinion like nice, ugly, beautiful- your opinion. then size or weight (tamaño o peso): heavy, large, small, then age; young, old ancient etc. then shape like round square, rectangular. Followed by colour, then origin – where the noun is from, for example German or Canadian, then it’s the material of the thing; like metal, plastic, wooden etc. and finally the noun. One way to remember this is by using the acronym OSASHCORM. Repeat: OSASHCORM. The O is opinion, the S is size (or weight), the A is age, the SH is shape, the C is colour, the OR is origin and the M is material. OSASHCORM. Say it again with me after 3 one – two – three – OSASHCORM! Listen and repeat the sentences: An old blue sweater An expensive Japanese car. A sexy young lady. A boring English grammar book. The last two months. A heavy black laptop. A pretty French village. An ugly heavy Swiss watch. A terrible new film. A lovely white plastic table. A funny little man. Gorgeous big brown eyes. Also in the intermediate section, we looked at some more common collocations. Especially those words that like to collocate, or go together, with verbs make, take, do and have. So, let’s see what you remember. If you make an appointment you organise a meeting with other people. I need to make an appointment to see my doctor. You can’t see him without an appointment. To have an appointment means you are going to participate in a meeting with other people. First you make an appointment, then you have an appointment. Don’t confuse appointment with arrangement. To make an appointment is pedir una cita o hora. An arrangement is more un arreglo o un plan: What are your arrangements? - ¿cuáles son tus planes? Both go together with the verb make, so you make arrangements and you make appointments. Have you made arrangements for Friday afternoon? To have an argument with someone means to argue with that person. You can also say to have a row (with someone). To have a row is an informal British English expression. Quite common: “I had a row with my girlfriend and now we’re not speaking to each other.” Row, is a verb and a noun. “Listen to the neighbours rowing next door.” – to have a row with someone. – To have an argument. To make a breakthrough means to make an important discovery. “Scientists have made a breakthrough in regenerative medicine.” To take care means to be careful. I often say “take care” when I say goodbye to people I care about. Especially on the phone when I end a conversation. “Yeah, it was really great to talk to you. Speak to you soon. Take care. Bye.” Maybe in Spanish you say ¡Cuídate! Or ¡Que te vaya bien! – Take care! - Take care of someone or something means cuidar a. “My mum’s getting old now so my sister takes care of her.” - It’s similar to the phrasal verb to look after. To take care of can also mean ocuparse de algo. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of all the emails and you make the coffee.” If you take charge of something you assume authority over it. Imagine the police arriving at an accident scene. “Ok, stand back. We’re taking charge now.” Who’s in charge?” ¿Quien manda aquí” – To take charge – encargarse o hacerse cargo. “Who’s going to take charge of the office when Pepito leaves?” To make conversation means to start a conversation with someone with no other aim than to talk and break the silence. To have a conversation means to converse, or to speak. To make a deal (in British English) or do a deal (in American English) means to make a contract with someone. The businessman took his partner out to lunch to make a deal. - Le citó con la idea de hacer un negocio con él. To make a decision, or take a decision, is to decide. “Have you made a decision about selling your flat?” To do an operation means to operate medically on someone. “Who’s doing the operation?” To take an opportunity is similar to taking advantage of a situation. To make an opportunity means to arrange things to your advantage. And to have an opportunity means to be at the right place at the right time to do something advantageous. In the business English section this month, we practised asking people to do things in the office. When you ask people to do things in English, the intonation is very important. We use rising and falling intonation to be more polite. Listen: Can I phone you later? Repeat: Can I phone you later? Listen: Would you mind phoning me later? Repeat: Would you mind phoning me later? Listen: Please make sure you phone me later. Repeat: Please make sure you phone me later. Listen: Could you phone me later? Repeat: Could you phone me later? Now you try… Listen: Please don’t forget to phone me later. Repeat: Please don’t forget to phone me later. Last month, in the advanced section, we practised animal idioms. This month we continue with the animal theme to look at collective nouns. Words used to describe groups of animals. Listen and repeat to practise pronunciation: a swarm of bees a litter of kittens / puppies a pride lions a pack of wolves a flock of birds or sheep a band of gorillas a colony of ants a bed of oysters a school of whales a swarm of insects a herd of cattle a shoal of fish Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. And 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

Jan 21, 2011 • 31min
October 2010
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. 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

Nov 19, 2010 • 26min
September 2010
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. Podcast Transcription Hi and welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast from mansioningles.com, recorded for September 2010. For most of you, September means back to work, back to school and back to the routine. That’s what it means for us here at La Mansión del Inglés. We hope you’ve had a good summer. Esperamos que hubieras pasado muy bien el verano y que estéis listos para practicar ingles de nuevo con nosotros. The first exercise in this month’s Newsletter – el primero ejercicio en el cuaderno este mes – was about the difference between job and work. – la diferencia entre el nombre contable job – “I have 2 jobs”, y el nombre incontable work .” I have a lot of work”. Work puede ser contable en el caso de una obra de arte. The works of William Shakespeare o the works of Pablo Picasso. Listen and repeat some example sentences. Escucha y repite algunas frases de ejemplo. I’ve got a new job. The mechanic did a fantastic job. He’s got a lot of work this weekend. Nota la pronunciación de a lot of - /e/ /lot/ /ev/ repeat: a lot of – a lot of work – got a lot of work – he’s got a lot of work. Learning English is hard work. Do a good job. Work well. He’s a good worker – es buen trabajador – He works well.- trabaja bien. You’ve never done a hard day’s work in your life! Es lo dice mi padre. Hard work? Hard work? You don’t know what hard work is! You’ve never done a day’s work in your life! She’s always changing jobs. Does your new computer work with Windows 7? – Does it work? Yes, it works. It works very well. - Is it working now? How long does it take you to get to work? Let’s move on to our list of irregular verbs. Vamos a seguir con la lista de verbos irregulares. ¿Qué es el verbo leer en inglés? To read Escucha y repite: read – read – read. The spelling is the same. Se escribe las tres formas igual, pero no se pronuncia igual. Escucha y repite: read – read – read. How often do you read the newspaper? I read a good book last week. Have you read the report yet? Next is the verb montar – to ride repeat: ride – rode – ridden. Have you ever ridden a horse? Can you ride a motorbike? I rode home in the rain. Repeat: ride – rode – ridden. Llamar is to ring. Listen; ring – rang – rung. Hay algunos verbos irregulars que siguen estas mismas sonido vocals en las tres formas del verbo. Repite: /I/ /a/ /u/ - ring – rang – rung. El sonido /a/ puede ser difícil por hablantes españoles /a/ - cat – hat – sat. Comparar el sonido con /u/ up – cup / cat – cut – my cat is black – cut (cortar) cut and paste / hat – (sombrero) – hut – cabaña – Pizza Hut. Repite: ring – rang – rung / drink – drank – drunk / swim – swam – swum El verbo leventarse in English is to rise. Repeat: rise – rose – risen. The sun always rises. Rise es un verbo intransitivo - no va con un objecto directo. No se puede decir: “Rise the sun” o “Rise the table”. The sun rises in the morning. What time did it rise yesterday? It rose at 6:38. How much has the dollar risen this month? It hasn’t risen, it’s fallen. Next is the verb to run or correr in Spanish. Repeat: run – ran – run. I run marathons. I ran the New York marathon in 3 hours and 14 minutes. I’ve run 13 marathons. Repeat: run – ran – run How do you say decir in English? ¿Como se dice to say? – That’s it! Say – said – said S-A-I-D said. Repeat: say – said – said. What did you say? I said “hello”. I’ve said all I want to say. What did she say to you? - She said she loves me! El verbo ver is to see. See – saw – seen. Repeat: see – saw – seen. Have you seen Brad Pitt’s new film? Yes, I saw it last weekend. I see you. Do you see me? Next is the verb vender – to sell. Sell – sold – sold. Repeat: sell –sold – sold. What does he sell? ¿Qué vende él? I sold my car yesterday. How many have you sold? The verb to send means enviar. Repeat: send – sent – sent. Please send the email today. I sent it yesterday. Have you sent mum a birthday card? And finally, the verb disparar – to shoot. Repeat: Shoot – shot – shot. Who shot John F. Kennedy? También se dice to shoot a film – rodar una pelicula. – How many films have you shot? John Lennon was shot in New York. ¡Muy bien! Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir la segunda y tercera forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo? read read – read ride rode – ridden ring rang – rung rise rose – risen run ran – run say said – said see saw – seen sell sold – sold send sent – sent shoot shot – shot We also studied Time expressions this month– Los expresiones del tiempo Listen and repeat – escucha y repite: This month is September. Last month was August. Next month is October Today’s Thursday. Yesterday was Wednesday. What day is tomorrow? Tomorrow’s Friday. I saw her yesterday morning. I sent the email yesterday afternoon. two weeks ago – I rang you two weeks ago – hace dos semanas last Friday – el viernes pasado – I saw the film last Friday. last weekend – I didn’t go out last weekend. the day before yesterday – anteayer – I read the report the day before yesterday. the day after tomorrow – pasado mañana – I’ll see you the day after tomorrow. next weekend next Wednesday – el proximo miercoles – see you next Wednesday! in three weeks time – dentro de 3 semanas - We’re gong on holiday in three weeks time. In the intermediate section this month we looked at countable and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns are nouns you can count. Hmm that’s obvious; people, dogs, mountains, hamburgers etc.. Of course, uncountable nouns are impossible, or at least really difficult, to count. Liquids like, water, beer, oil, petrol. Salt, sand, rice etc., are all uncountable nouns. So, using the examples of peanuts (for countable nouns) and beer (for uncountable nouns), repeat the following sentences and practise expressions of quantity. There’s a lot of peanuts – There’s a lot of beer There aren’t many peanuts - There isn’t much beer Are there many peanuts? - Is there much beer? There are too many peanuts – There’s too much beer There are far too many peanuts – There’s far too much beer There are few peanuts - There is little beer There are a few peanuts – There’s a little beer There are very few peanuts - There is very little beer There are too few peanuts - There is too little beer There are far too few peanuts - There is far too little beer There are many more peanuts - There is much more beer There are fewer peanuts - There is less beer We also looked at more common uncountable nouns, such as information - I’d like some information. Pasta – Don’t give me too much pasta. Travel – Travel is a wonderful way to meet new people. News – I’ve got some bad news for you. Furniture – I don’t have much furniture in my flat. Advice – Can you give me some advice? and luggage – Why did you bring so much luggage? In the advanced section this month, we studied some idioms. Listen and repeat: To beat about the bush. Stop beating about the bush and tell me what you think. It’s a blessing in disguise. I didn’t want to go anyway. Do you think you can get your hands on a free mobile phone for me? I don’t like be the centre of attention. I generally keep myself to myself We need to clarify the situation. We have no idea where we stand at the moment. I don’t believe you. You’re pulling my leg. We need to put all these problems behind us darling. What’s on your mind? In the business section we looked at 10 more common collocations that are typically found in business English. Listen and repeat: To interview an applicant – we interviewed many applicants for the job. You were the most suitable. If you set up a business you start a business. La Mansión del Inglés was set up about 9 years ago. Another phrasal verb that collocates often with business is to take off. We usually speak about planes taking off - going up. Similarly, if a business takes off it becomes successful. The business took off very soon after we had set it up. Now we employ 12 employees and we’re thinking of taking on more staff. To attend a conference means to go to a conference. He attended a conference on climate change. I’m afraid I can’t meet with you next week, I’m attending a conference. To hold a meeting means tener una reunion – We hold staff meetings once a month. The union is going to hold a meeting to discuss the annual pay increase. To provide a service – ofrecer algo – They provide an excellent catering service. To hire a new employee – to take on a new employee. – to employ a new person – We’ve hired a new secretary. If you ask for a raise you ask for more money. A raise in salary - Una subida/aumento de sueldo – I’m going to ask for a raise at the end of the year. I think I deserve it. – to deserve – merecer develop a product - To develop is desarrollar. He’s a software devoloper - Es un desarrollador de software. Apple are developing a new product. To deal with a problem resolver/ocuparse de/hacer frente a/abordar – Can you deal with this problem, please. I’m very busy. I’ll deal with this problem as soon as possible.- How should we deal with this problem? - ¿Qué hemos de hacer con este promlema? To run a business – is to manage a business. – dirigir a una empresa – Who runs the business? Who runs the marketing side? I’ve been running this company for 47 years. Next month we’ll look at 10 more common business collocations. 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

Nov 11, 2010 • 26min
August 2010
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. Podcast Transcription Hi and welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast from mansioningles.com, recorded for August 2010. Most of you are probably on holiday now. Sitting on the beach listening to this podcast, watching the palm trees sway (balancearse, mecerse) from side to side in a gentle breeze. Maybe drinking a cold beer or a cool vodka and tonic with ice and lemon. Ahh! - Where ever you are and whatever you’re doing, I hope you’re well and happy, and ready to practise some more English with La Mansión del Inglés. Hola. ¿Qué tal? Espero que todo va bien. No me gusta hablar en español porque mi español es muy malo, y tengo muchas faltas. Pero debo hacerlo y tú tienes que hablar en inglés. OK? Come on! ¿Animo! Because it’s holiday time, we practised a lot of holiday vocabulary in this month’s Newsletter (cuaderno). Empezamos, como siempre, con el nivel básico. Voy a decir algunas palabras en español y tú tienes que decirlas el inglés antes que yo. Luego, repite las palabras para practicar la pronunciación. ¿Listos? ola – No ‘Hola’ – hello, ola sin la ‘h’ – wave – el sonido vocal es /ai/ repeat: wave costa – coast – sonido vocal /ow/ coast - repeat: coastnadar - to swim puesta de sol - sunset isla – island – la ‘s’ no se pronuncia escucha: island - repeat: island puerto – port – sonido vocal /aw/ - port - repeat: port arena - sand playa – beach vowel sound – sonido vocal – /I:/ repeat: beach. No olvides hacer el sonido vocal largo /i:/ - beach. Si no, suena como bitch que es una perra- or worse!. So repeat with me: /i:/ ‘beach’ – beach. I’m looking for the beach. piscina - swimming pool mar - sea pelota de playa - beach ball sombrilla - beach umbrella gafas de sol - sunglasses toalla - towel – difficult pronunciation. Listen: towel - repeat: towel crema solar - suncream quemado por el sol - sunburned – suncream, sunburn – hay muchas palabras con sun en la playa. Tomar el sol is to sunbathe – repeat: sunbathe. Be careful – ten cuidado – when you’re sunbathing. The sun is very hot. Put suncream on your body. If you don’t you might get sunburned – quemado por el sol. But if you’re careful, you’ll get a nice suntan bonceado, moreno – Repeat: suntan - to get a suntan - oh and it’s a good idea to wear sunglasses – gafas de sol. Take sunglasses to the beach. Let’s move on to our list of irregular verbs. Vamos a seguir con la lista de verbos irregulares. ¿Qué es el verbo dejar en inglés? To leave Escucha y repite: leave– left - left. What time did you leave? I left at 3:30. I’ve left you some chocolate cake in the fridge. Don’t leave me. Please don’t go! Next is the verb prestar – to lend repeat lend – lent - lent. Can you lend me your pen? Los verbos lend y borrow se confunden mucho. Lend es prestar (you lend something to someone) y borrow es tomar prestado (you borrow something from someone). Los dos términos se puede confundir ya que en español se habla de forma diferente "Me prestas tu coche?" = "Can you lend your car to me?" ... nunca se dice "Can you borrow your car to me?"... "Tomé prestado tu coche " = I borrowed your car. So, you borrow money from the bank - The bank lends money to you (er..sometimes!). Repeat: lend – lent – lent. Can you lend me $10? I lent you 10 yesterday! Los verbos permitir, dejar se traducen en ingles a let – Repeat: let – let - let. Easy. No se cambia let – let -let – Let me see! - ¡Déjame ver! Her father lets her smoke – Su padre le déjà fumar. Encender o iluminar is to light – L-I-G-H-T – light – lit – lit. Did you light the fire? – I lit a cigarette. Come on baby light my fire! – ¡enciende mi fuego! El verbo perder en inglés is to lose – repeat: lose – lost – lost. The vowel sound is /oo/ lose. I often lose my keys – mis llaves. Valencia usually loses to Barcelona. Chelsea lost against Manchester United. I want to lose weight. To lose weight – perder peso.– I’ve lost 3 kilos. What’s the opposite of lose weight? – put on weight. That’s easy for Spanish speakers to remember ‘put on’ – I’ve put on weight. To make means hacer repeat: make – made – made. It’s made of wood – Es de madera. - It makes me happy. Me hace feliz. I made a cake yesterday. El verbo significar is to mean. Repeat – mean – meant - meant Repite el sonido vocal /I:/ mean. What does this mean? ¿Qué significa esto? What do you mean? ¿qué quieres decir (con eso)? A student once asked me “Craig, what does mean mean?” ¿Craig, Qué significa mean? To meet is conocer o encontrar. Repeat – meet – met – met - "pleased to meet you" or “nice to meet you” - encantado de conocerte. We met the verb meet last month with the verb to know. Do you remember? To know can also mean conocer. La primera vez que coneces a alguien you meet them. “Nice to meet you.” After you meet them, you know them. I met her at a party. Where did you meet your wife? I met her at a wedding. Have you ever met anyone famous? Pagar in English is to pay. Repeat: pay – paid – paid. Did you pay for the beers? – I paid you last week. Has your boss paid you yet? How much did he pay you? Finally, the verb poner. In English to put. La forma es la misma. Put – put – put. El vocal /u/ repeat: /u/ put –put –put. Put my coffee on the table. Where did you put your jacket? Have you put the air conditioning on? You've put on weight. Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir la segunda y tercera forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo? leave left – left lend lent – lent let let – let light lit – lit lose lost – lost make made – made mean meant – meant meet met – met pay paid – paid put put - put We also studied some holiday vocabulary at intermediate level this month. Let’s see what you remember. I’ll say the Spanish words and expressions, and you say the English translation before I do. Then, repeat the vocabulary to practise pronunciation. el balneario What’s that in English? El balneario. I can’t even say it in Spanish! Help! How do I say this? El balneario — It’s a spa, or resort bahía - bay – B – A - Y traje de baño, bañador - swimsuit or swimming trunks buceo, bucear - diving, to dive esnorkel, buceo con tubo de respiración - snorkeling – to go snorkeling bloque del sol, crema solar, bronceador - sunscreen, sunblock or suntan lotion vista al mar - sea view océano - ocean tomar el sol - to sunbathe bañista - sunbather salvavidas - lifeguard concha marina - sea shell. That’s difficult. Repeat: sea shell – sea shell nevera - cooler marea alta - high tide marea baja - low tide And now some useful phrases - Frases útiles – say them in English and Repeat them. ¿Dónde está la playa? - Where’s the beach? La entonación es muy importante en la preguntas. Listen and repeat: Where’s the beach? – Excuse me, where’s the beach? ¿Hay algún salvavidas? - Is there a lifeguard? ¿Es seguro para niños? - Is it safe for children? ¿Es seguro nadar aquí? Is it safe to swim here? ¿Es seguro bucear aquí? Is it safe to dive here? ¿Podemos nadar aquí? - Can we swim here? ¿Hay que pagar? - Do we have to pay? - ¿Cuánto cuesta alquilar una sombrilla? - How much to rent an umbrella? ¿Cuánto cuesta alquilar una silla? - How much to rent a chair? ¿Cuánto cuesta alquilar una bici? - How much to rent a bicycle? Más frases: Don’t forget to book a hotel. Have you packed your suitcase. My friend is a travel agent. I got a great deal on hotel in London Travelling during peak season can be expensive. We like to stay at bed and breakfast places We had to get a connecting flight. I’m here on business I went sightseeing in Liverpool Is the room air-conditioned? Does the room have a safe? I’d like to make a reservation. Please. Did you buy any souvenirs? In the advanced section this month we practised some sentence transformations. This kind of exercise is typical of the type of exercise found in the Cambridge Advanced English exam. We are developing an advanced English cd at the moment, and we hope to have it finished before the end of the year. Listen and repeat: I wish to express my dissatisfaction with the poor service at your hotel. There is little chance of us going to Italy on holiday this year. Pepito asked if I would give him a lift to the airport. Are you being attended to , madam? Customers are required to give two weeks notice if they intend to change their booking. On no account should your luggage be left unattended. In our Business English section this month there were two more short exercises on business collocations. Listen and repeat: To make a profit. – What’s the opposite of make a profit? – make a loss. If your company is doing well and makes money, it makes a profit. If it loses money, it makes a loss. If your company employs more workers, it takes on staff. To take on staff. My school took on 6 new teachers last month. – They employed 6 new teachers. Do you remember the expression for despedir from last months podcast? Despedir is to lay off staff. To take on new staff and the opposite to lay off staff. Lanzar in English is to launch. So lanzar un producto nuevo is to launch a new product. To go into partnership is how La Mansión del Inglés got started almost ten years ago. I went into partnership with my friend, and now business partner, and we started a business together. – To go into partnership with someone Llegar a una conclusion can be to come to a conclusion or to draw a conclusion. What conclusions did you draw from the meeting? To bear in mind means to consider, to take into account – considerar, tener en cuenta, tener presente. Bear in mind that we have an enormous amount of money invested in this project. dismiss an offer. – dismiss here means rechazar. The union dismissed the offer of a 3% pay rise. – to dismiss an offer. Next month we’ll look at 10 more common business collocations. 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

Oct 4, 2010 • 34min
July 2010
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. Podcast Transcription Hi and welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast from mansioningles.com, recorded for July 2010. Are you hot? It’s really hot here in Valencia. I’m boiling! ¡Estoy asado! How are you? I hope you’ll be having a holiday soon and I hope you’ll be practising your English, even of you’re not going to an English speaking country. Maybe you can find an English speaking tourist to practise your English with. Intenta, si puedes, practicar inglés este verano con un nativo. Si vas a viajar o hay turistas donde vives, habla con ellos. Speak English! OK, let’s start the podcast with our list of irregular verbs. Vamos a empezarar con la lista de verbos irregulares. ¿Qué es el verbo dar en inglés? To give Escucha y repite: give – gave - given. What did you give your mum for Christmas? I gave her a new sweater. I’ve already given you the money.Next is the verb ir – to go repeat go – went - gone. Again – otra vez: go – went – gone. I go, you go, he goes- G-O-E-S – she goes – it goes. Did you go to work yesterday? I went home at 8 o’clock. My secretary’s gone to lunch.El verbo crecer en ingles is to grow – Repeat: grow – grew – grow. I grew up in London. Where did you grow up? Look how you’ve grown. It’s unbelievable! – Mira como has credido. ¡No lo puedo creer! Repeat: Look how you’ve grown. It’s unbelievable!haber o tener is to have – have or has – had – had. I have, you have, he has, she has, it has. El verbo have es un verbo principal I have an iPhone – Yo tengo un iPhone, y también un verbo auxiliar – I have had a lovely time. Me ha pasado muy bien – Cuando el have tiene función del verbo auxiliar normalmente esta con contración. I’ve had a lovely time. I have – I’ve. He has – he’s, it has – it’s etc.El verbo oìr en inglés is to hear – repeat: hear – heard - heard. The vowel sounds are /ie/ - hear – and /er/ - heard. Repeat: hear – heard – heard. I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. Yes, I heard what you said. Have you heard about Samantha?To hide means ocultar repeat: hide – hid - hidden. Again: hide – hid - hidden. Where did you hide the chocolate? I hid the money under the bed.El verbo golpear is to hit. Repeat – hit – hit – hit. Easy – así de fácil. Repeat the vowel sound. Repite el sonido vocal /I/ hit – hit – hit- Don’t hit the dog!Agarrar o celebrar is to hold. Repeat – hold – held – held. Hold my hand. The meetings are usually held in Simon’s office. Where are the Olympics being held next year?To hurt in Spanish is herir – The vowel sound (el sonido vocal) es /er/. Repeat /er/ - hurt. Como el verbo ‘hit’, el verbo hurt no cambia. Los tres formas son iguales. Repeat: hurt – hurt – hurt. Did you hurt yourself? - ¿te has hecho daño? - Yes, I hurt my leg. I’m sorry if I hurt you. The verb to keep is conservar, guardar o quedarse con. Repeat: keep – kept – kept. Keep the change - quédese con el cambio. Shhhh.. Can you keep a secret? I’ve kept a diary (un diario) since I was eleven..And finally the verb to know - saber o conocer. Es raro que lleva una ‘k’, porque no se pronuncia - know - K-N-O-W - to know. Repeat: know – knew – known. Do you know this word in Spanish? I knew you when you were a child. How long have you known him? El verbo conocer puede ser to meet or to know. La primera vez que coneces a alguien you meet them. “Nice to meet you”. After you meet them, you know them. Listen: I’ve known him for 5 years. I met him in Madrid. I met him 5 years ago. I’ve known him for a long time. So, to know is conocer a alguien, tenerlo por conocido , but to meet means conocer a alguien por primera vez.Would you rather meet new people or spend time with the ones you already know?Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir el segundo y tercero forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo? give gave – givengo went – gonegrow grew – grownhave had - hadhear heard – heardhide hid – hiddenhit hit – hithold held – heldhurt hurt - hurtkeep kept – keptknow knew – known The next exercise in the newsletter (el cuaderno) practised some irregular verbs in the past tense. Vamos a practicar algunas frases que llevan los verbos irregulares en el pasado. Escucha y repite: 1. We got home late. - We got home late. 2. The shop was closed. - The shop was closed. 3. We drove to France last summer. - We drove to France last summer.4. I went to a Chinese restaurant yesterday. - I went to a Chinese restaurant yesterday.5. I forgot to phone the doctor. - I forgot to phone the doctor. 6. They told us to wait. - They told us to wait.7. I gave you 20 Euros. - I gave you 20 Euros.8. I had a fantastic time. - I had a fantastic time.9. I grew up in Buenos Aires. - I grew up in Buenos Aires.10. I heard about your problem. - I heard about your problem.11. We had pizza for lunch. - We had pizza for lunch.12. She died in 2003. - She died in 2003.13. How long have you known him? - How long have you known him?14. He’s caught a cold. - He’s caught a cold.15. I've eaten too much. - I've eaten too much.16. We flew to New York. - We flew to New York. The verb GET was the subject in the intermediate section this month. Get tiene muchos significados. Por ejemplo, volverse, recibir, empezar, obtener, llegar, traer y también con adjetivos para expresar estados: get tired, get angry, get drunk etc.Listen and repeat:Where did you get that computer?We get our cheese from the local market.Can you get the phone, please?Your coffee’s getting cold.It is getting late. I should go. What time’s dinner? I’m getting hungry.I’ve just got a text message.When did you get married?What time did you get home?Where can I get a taxi?Have you got a pen? Have you got..? - ¿tienes...? Is more common in British English. Do you have..? Is more common in American English. The meaning is the same. Do you have a pen? Have you got a pen? Let’s practise some adjectives with get. I’ll say the Spanish verb and you say to get and the adjective before I do. Please excuse my bad Spanish pronunciation. Disculpa mi pronunciación tan mala en español. Ready? ¿Listo? mejorar - to get better empeorar - to get worse enfermarse - to get sick enfadarse - to get angry engordar - to get fat oscurecer – to get dark envejecer - to get old enriquecerse - to get rich ponerse frío, enfriarse - to get cold mojarse - to get wet ponerse nervioso - to get nervous mejorar, ponerse bien - to get well disgustarse - to get upset – U-P-S-E-T – to get upsetquedarse calvo - to get bald – B-A-L-D bald - calvoponerse contento - to get happy agarrar sueño – to get sleepy agarrar hambre - to get hungry agarrar sed - to get thirsty llenarse - to get full ponerse caluroso - to get hot hacerse tarde – to get late enojarse - to get mad There are also many expressions using get and a past participle. For example aburrirse is to get bored. Let’s practise some. I’ll say the Spanish verb and you say to get and the past participle before I do. OK? vestirse - to get dressed preocuparse - to get worried prepararse - to get ready comprometerse - to get engaged casarse - to get married llenarse de gente - to get crowded cansarse - to get tired confundirse - to get confused emocionarse - to get excited deprimirse - to get depressed asustarse - to get scared terminar - to get finished emborracharse - to get drunk perderse - to get lost aburrirse - to get bored Moving on to the advanced section, we looked at prefixes (prefijos). Tell me the opposites of the following verbs using prefixes. For example, the opposite of agree is disagree. Ready?dress - undresslike - dislikecredit – discredit – to discredit someoneconnect – disconnect – disconnect your mobile phone during the flightlock (cerrar) - unlockzip - unzipprove (probar) - disprovequalify - disqualifybelieve - disbelievefold - unfoldbend - unbend Here are some more examples of prefixes:The prefix micro means small – in Spanish you say micro; micro-computer is a small computer, microscopes look at small things.auto means of or by oneself, so if you write an autobiography, it’s about your life. If you write a biography, it’s about someone else’s life.pro means in favour of. If you are pro-abortion, you are in favour of abortion. If you are a pro-revolutionary, you are in favour of revolution. Pro is the opposite of anti. If you are against the war you’re anti-war. Against abortion – anti-abortion etc.The prefix post means after. So, if you’re doing post-graduate studies, you are studying something after you have graduated. Post is the opposite of pre. Post-war, pre-war, pre-natal is before birth, before the baby. Post-natal is after birth. Some women suffer from post-natal depression after they have a baby.bi means two or twice, bisexual for example, or bicycle – a bicycle has two wheels. Twice a month is bi-monthly, twice a week is bi-weekly. I subscribe to a bi-monthly podcast. I get one podcast every two weeks.ex means former - ex-president, ex-wife, ex-boyfriend etc.The prefix mis - M-I-S - means badly or wrongly. So if I misunderstand you, I understand you badly or wrongly. To misspell something is to spell it incorrectly.mono is one or single. A monologue has only one person talking. A dialogue has two or more people. over is too much. If you oversleep, you sleep to much. If something is overcooked it is cooked too much. The opposite is under. Underpaid – not paid enough. Overpaid – paid too much. Teachers are often overworked and underpaid. Overcook – undercook. My steak is overcooked. It’s completely black!multi means many. A multi-national company does business in many different countries. A multi-function device does many different things. I recently bought a multi-function device for my computer. It’s a printer and a scanner and a photocopier all in one. It’s a multi-purpose machine.sub means under. A submarine goes under the water. If something is substandard it is below an acceptable level or standard. And sub-zero temperatures are below zero. Notice that we say below zero and not under zero. In Alaska, it’s 16 degrees below zero. semi is half. My car is semi-automatic. I can change gears automatically and manually if I want. A semi-detached house is attached on one side to another house and detached on the other side. So it’s half attached – attached on one side only.The prefix re means again or back. If you read something a second time, you reread it. If you charge batteries again, you recharge them. George W Bush was elected president more than once, so he was re-elected. Well, we can’t have everything. In our Business English section this month there were two short exercises on Business Collocations. Listen and repeat: to lay off – despedir por reducciòn de plantilla. It’s similar to the expression to make s.o. redundant – repeat: to lay off – to lay off staff – Ford laid off 2,000 workers yesterday.To close a deal – llegar a un acuerdo o hacer un trato con alguien. Microsoft closed a deal with Apple last week. To close a deal.To come to the point – ir al grano - Please come to the point. Would you mind coming to the point.To break off negotiations – to stop talking, stop negotiating. The two companies broke off negotiations.To go bankrupt – I think in Spanish this means quebrar, ir a la quiebra, bancarrota. They went bankrupt last year. They went out of business. They owed millions of dollars. To owe is deberThe annual turnover is the amount of business a company does in a year. It is usually measured in income or sales. What was your annual turnover for 2009?To cease trading is to stop trading. Stop doing business. To cease means to stop. They ceased trading when they went bankrupt.A person who chairs a meeting is the person who is in charge of and who controls the meeting.If you draw someone’s attention to something you bring it to their attention so that they notice it. Let me draw your attention to last year’s turnover. I’d like to draw your attention to my last email (I want you to look at or think about my last email)The sales figures are the numbers (las cifras) that represent the products that have been sold. – repeat: sales figures. Last month’s sales figures.OK, next month we’ll look at 10 more common business collocations. 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 nearly 5,000 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 Adult Only, the track was Overlove. And also by Azhrak, the track was Below the Arctic Circle. Creative Commons licence from Jamendo.com

Jul 27, 2010 • 26min
June 2010
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. Podcast Transcription Hi and welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast from mansioningles.com, recorded for June 2010. Thank you for all your support on Facebook. We hope you like the competitions and the Skype calls. ¡Bienvenido!Gracias a todos vosotros ya tenemos más que 4,000 fans en nuestra página de Facebook. Espero que os gusten los concursos que hacemos y las llamadas de Skype. A mi me pasa muy bien hablando con vosotros. Let’s continue with the list of irregular verbs. Vamos a continuar con la lista de verbos irregulares. ¿Qué es el verbo comer en inglés? To eat Escucha y repite: eat – ate – eaten. What did you eat for lunch? Have you eaten yet? ¿Ya has comido? Next is the verb caer – to fall repeat fall – fell – fallen. Again – otra vez: fall – fell – fallen El verbo sentir en ingles is to feel – Repeat: feel –felt – felt luchar is to fight – F-I-G-H-T – fight – fought – fought We had the same vowel sound last month. Hemos tenido 2 verbos el mes pasado con el mismo sonido vocal /au/ repeat: /au/ buy – bought / catch – caught / fight – fought. A great film with Brad Pitt is Fightclub – El club de la lucha. Have you seen it? encontrar is to find – repeat: find – found – found. The vowel sound is /ow/ - found – found. I’m so happy I found you. I’m so happy I found La Mansión del Inglés! Volar means to fly repeat: fly – flew - flown. Again: fly – flew – flown. I flew to Paris. Have you ever flown business class? El verbo olvidar is to forget – repeat – forget – forgot – forgotten otra vez - forget – forgot – forgotten El verb perdonar is to forgive repeat – forgive – forgave – forgiven. Another wonderful film by Clint Eastwood. Sin Perdon – Unforgiven. Helar o congelar is to freeze – If it’s very cold you say. “It’s freezing!” repeat “It’s freezing!” freeze – froze – frozen. Comida congelada is frozen food. I froze the pizza yesterday. It’s in the freezer. The freezer – el congelador And finally the verb obtener. En inglés to get. Uno de los verbos más comunes en ingles. Listen/escucha get – got – got. Repeat: get – got – got. Easy! - I got drunk last night. Did you get any milk? I’ve got a new car. I got it last month. How much money have you got? You may hear get – got – gotten. A veces se dice gotten. Es más usado en el inglés Americano. Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir el segundo y tercero forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo? eat ate - eaten fall fell - fallen feel felt - felt fight fought - fought find found - found fly flew - flown forget forgot - forgotten forgive forgave - forgiven freeze froze - frozen get got - got / gotten The next exercise in the newsletter (el proximo ejecicio en el cuaderno) practised the difference between past simple and past continuous. Listen and repeat the sentences to practise pronunciation. Escucha y repite: I saw your mum yesterday. yesterday. - mum yesterday. - your mum yesterday. - I saw your mum yesterday. It wasn’t raining when we got to the city centre. - city centre - the city centre. - got to - got to the city centre. - when we got to the city centre. - It wasn’t raining - It wasn’t raining when we got to the city centre. I met your brother when I was walking the dog. - walking the dog. - when I was - when I was walking - when I was walking the dog - your brother - I met your brother - I met your brother when I was walking the dog. I met your brother when I was walking the dog. He didn’t go to the beach with me yesterday. - with me yesterday. - go to the beach - go to - go to the beach - He didn’t - He didn’t go to the beach - He didn’t go to the beach with me yesterday. Was Pepito wearing his new sunglasses when you saw him? - Saw him -when you saw him? - his new sunglasses - wearing his new sunglasses - Was Pepito wearing his new sunglasses when you saw him? Was Pepito wearing his new sunglasses when you saw him? Last year I ran in the New York marathon. marathon - the New York marathon. - I ran in the New York marathon. - Last year I ran in the New York marathon. - Last year I ran in the New York marathon. I wasn’t watching TV when you rang, I was having dinner. - having dinner. - I was having dinner - when you rang - when you rang, I was having dinner. - I wasn’t - I wasn’t watching - I wasn’t watching TV when you rang, I wasn’t watching TV when you rang, I was having dinner. I wasn’t watching TV when you rang, I was having dinner. In the intermediate section this month we practised some vocabulary connected with cars and driving. For example gearstick – palanca de cambio and seatbelt – cinturón de seguridad. Gearstick and seatbelt are compound nouns. A compound noun (un nombre compuesto) is when two nouns combine to form a single noun. Like bedroom or bookcase or seafood - marisco. The first noun acts like an adjective and gives information about the second noun. In Spanish you say the door of the car – la puerta del coche. In English we say cardoor. In Spanish you say the champion of tennis – el campionato de tennis - in English tennis champion. In Spanish you say a card of credit – una tarjecta de credito, in English we say credit card. Compound nouns are sometimes written as one word, sometimes as two separate words and sometimes with a hyphen – guíon. OK, I’ll say the Spanish noun or expression and you say the compound noun before I do. Remember all the words are connected to cars and driving. Ready? volante - steering wheel bolsa de aire - airbag freno de mano - handbrake parabrisas – windscreen (in British English), windshield (in American English) palanca de cambio - gearstick cinturón de seguridad – seatbelt faros – headlights aparcamiento - carpark (in British English), parking lot (in American English) asiento de coche – carseat teléfono de automóvil – carphone túnel de lavado – Carwash Here are some more car words and expressions. motor – engine ruedas – wheels maletero - boot (boot – in British English) / trunk (in American English) neumático – tyre – a car has four tyres and a spare tyre. Where is the spare tyre usually kept? In the boot (or in the trunk). One on the first things you do when you get into a car is you turn on the engine – arrancar el coche You do up or put on your seatbelt and you take off the handbrake. Some cars are automatic. They have an automatic gearbox, especially American cars. European cars tend to have manual gearboxes, so you have to change gears using the gearstick and the clutch – el embrague. We say to put the car in gear. When you are low on petrol (or gas as the Americans say) you fill up with petrol. That was one of the first Spanish expressions I learned here in Spain. “llenalo por favour” Fill it up, please. When it gets dark you turn on the headlights, and when you park the car, you turn the headlights off. Frenar is to brake and if you want to go faster you accelerate. To accelerate – acelerar. You usually accelerate when you overtake - to overtake – adelantar (I think in México they say rebasar) to indicate means indicar, señalizar poner el intermitente. That’s something that Spanish drivers don’t do very often here in Valencia. I often have to guess which way the car in front of me is going to turn. Aparcar (or in Latin America parquear) is to park, and a bend in the road is una curva and to swerve is dar un viraje brusco. To swerve to the right – virar bruscamente a la derecha. to pick (someone) up in your car is buscar, recoger: I'll pick you up at the airport - te iré a recoger al aeropuerto. What’s the opposite of pick someone up? to drop off - dejar: I'll drop you off at your house - te dejaré en casa. Repeat: I’ll pick you up – I’ll pick you up at your hotel. Can you pick me up at the airport? Where does the coach drop us off? Can you drop me off at the nearest restaurant? Llevar a alguien en coche is to give somebody a lift – Repeat: I'll give you a lift. Can you give me a lift to the airport? Listen and repeat: Did you come by car? - Let’s go for a drive - Did you bring the car? - Yes, I drove here. - Drive – drove – driven. When was the last time you drove? Please slow down – Would you mind slowing down? Could you drive more slowly? Speed up – go faster - Put your foot down – ¡Más rápido! In the advanced part of the newsletter we practised talking about habits. Listen and repeat the sentences. A good friend is someone who keeps phoning you even when there’s no real news. A bore is someone who is always talking about their boring hobbies. A bore is someone who tends not to notice when other people aren’t interested. When I was 11, my best friend and I used to walk home from school together. When I was 11, my best friend would always take my side if there was a problem. My least favourite teacher at school always criticised me in front of the other students. My least favourite teacher at school tended to treat the girls better than the boys. My least favourite teacher at school kept losing his temper with the class. In the Business English section there were some useful expressions for telephone English. Listen and repeat the expressions and say your name when you hear the tone. Good morning, (tone) speaking. Who's calling, please? Good afternoon, (tone) speaking. How can I help you? This is (tone) speaking. Hello, this is (tone) Could I speak to _______ please? I'd like to speak to _______, please. Could you put me through to _______ , please? I'm afraid he isn't in at the moment. I'm sorry, she’s in a meeting at the moment. I'm afraid he’s on another line at the moment. Just a moment, please. Could you hold the line, please? Hold the line, please. I'm sorry, I don't understand. Could you repeat that, please? I'm sorry, I can't hear you very well. Could you speak up a little, please? Could you spell that, please? One moment, please. I'll see if she’s available. I'll put you through. I'll connect you. I'm connecting you now. Can I take a message? Would you like to leave a message? Can I give him a message? I'll tell her that you called I'll ask him to call you as soon as possible 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 off more than 4,000 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 Adult Only, the track was Overlove. And also by Azhrak, the track was Below the Arctic Circle. Creative Commons licence from Jamendo.com

Jul 25, 2010 • 20min
May 2010
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. Podcast Transcription Hi and welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast from mansioningles.com, recorded for May 2010. Thank you for all your support on Facebook. We really enjoy reading your comments. It’s a lot of fun for me to have students from so many different countries. Gracias por sus amables palabras sobre el cuaderno del mes pasado. Especialmente en nuestra página de Facebook. Si quieres seguirnos y participar en la página, busca La Mansión del Inglés desde tu cuenta de Facebook. Let’s continue with the list of irregular verbs that we started last month. Vamos a continuar con la lista de verbos irregulares en inglés que hemos empezado el mas pasado. ¿Qué es el verbo comprar en inglés? To buy Escucha y repite: buy – bought – bought Next is the verb to catch repeat catch –caught– caught escucha el sonido vocal /au/ caught - caught El verbo venir en ingles is to come - come – came – come costar is to cost the verb to cost doesn’t change in the past or past participle. La forma no cambia escucha: cost – cost – cost Morder is to bite – bite - bit – bitten Otro verbo que no cambia es el verbo cortar – to cut repeat: cut – cut – cut. cortar y pegar = cut and paste. El verbo elegir is to choose – repeat – choose – chose – chosen –again – otra vez - choose – chose – chosen Hacer is to do repeat – do or does I do, you do, they do, we do – he does, she does, it does. Repeat: do/does – did - done Soñar is to dream – There are two possible forms for the past and participle of dream. Hay dos formas posibles – dream - dreamt DREAMT dreamt or dreamed DREAMED dreamed– dreamt or dreamed Repeat: dream – dreamt – dreamt or dream – dreamed - dreamed Do you know the verb beber en inglés? ¿Sabes como decir el verbo beber en inglés? It’s to drink repeat: to drink – drink – drank - drunk. And finally the verb conducir. En inglés to drive. Listen/escucha drive – drove – driven. Repeat: drive – drove - driven Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir el segundo y tercero forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. buy - bought - bought catch - caught - caught come - came - come cost - cost - cost cut - cut - cut choose - chose - chosen do - did - done dream - dreamt - dreamt drink - drank - drunk drive - drove – driven Now let’s talk about some verbs we can use to talk about the body and things you do with your body. To cough in Spanish is toser. The spelling is really strange: COUGH cough. Yeah I know – English spelling is crazy. It’s mad. No tiene sentido – it makes no sense. Anyway, the pronunciation is cough. It’s also a noun – a cough. I’ve got a bad cough. Repeat. I’ve got a bad cough. People who smoke a lot may have a smoker’s cough. Repeat a smoker’s cough. Have you got a smoker’s cough? To breathe- BREATHE - is respirar. Repeat: to breathe. I can’t breathe in here. The noun is breath – BREATH (sin la E). She’s got bad breath. To yawn is bostezar. If you’re tired and bored during this podcast, you’ll probably be yawning. – to yawn. Atchooo! - Estornudar – is to sneeze. If you have a cold you’ll probably be sneezing. We can say to catch a cold. Repeat: to catch a cold. What’s the past form of catch?.....caught. Very good! I caught a cold last week. Actually, that’s true. When I went on holiday at Easter I caught a cold. I caught a cold in Navarra. To sigh – SIGH - suspirar – It’s also a noun. He gave a deep sigh when he saw her. To snore is – roncar – SNORE. My dad snores really loudly. OK, I’ll say the Spanish verb and you say the translation before I do. Ready? toser - to cough respirar - to breathe bostezar - to yawn estornudar – to sneeze suspirar - to sigh roncar - to snore The following verbs are often used when we talk about food and eating. Masticar in English is to chew. Chew your food well. Chicle in English is chewing gum. eructar in English is to burp. In some countries it’s polite to burp after eating. It shows appreciation. Not in the UK though. It’s considered rude (mal educado). That doesn’t stop my sister. She’s always burping. How do we say tragar in English? - to swallow – Drink water when you swallow the pill. A pill is una pastilla lamer in English is to lick. Lick ice cream, lick your lips – tus labios. Whenever I see a good chocolate cake I lick my lips. morder in English is to bite. I’m not going to bite you. No te voy a morder. chupar in English is to suck. Here’s a joke that you can tell your English teacher (if you have one). “I had a friend who drowned in a bowl of muesli. A strong current sucked him in.” Ask your teacher to explain that one. Let’s see what you remember. I’ll say the Spanish verb and you say the translation before I do. OK, here we go. morder - to bite chupar – to suck tragar – to swallow masticar – to chew lamer – to lick eructar – to burp Ok, let’s look at some verbs now that are used in connection with the eyes and the face. parpadear means to blink. I blinked in the sunlight when I came out of the cinema. guiñar el ojo – to wink. I winked at a girl in a bar yesterday, but she ignored me. The story of my life. Do you remember suspirar - to sigh. I have no luck with girls. Maybe I should stop winking at them. Ruborizarse in English is to blush. I’m very shy (timido). I blush easily. Girls put blusher on their face to make their cheeks (sus mejillas) red. Blusher is make-up (maquillaje) sonreír abiertamente is to grin - GRIN. She was so happy to see me that she was grinning from ear to ear. fruncir means to frown. I frowned when I realised we were going to be late again. Why are you frowning? What’s wrong? Once again, I’m going to say the Spanish verb and I want you to say the English verb before I do. Ready? parpadear – to blink guiñar el ojo – to wink ruborizarse – to blush sonreír abiertamente – to grin fruncir – to frown And I apologise for my bad Spanish pronunciation. In the business English section this month, there was an exercise to practise prepositions. Prepositions are difficult in English because they are often different from Spanish, so it doesn’t always help to translate. Listen and repeat the sentences. All of the sentences start with the expression “I’m afraid…” . I’m afraid means Me temo or “I’m sorry, but….” I'm afraid the manager’s at lunch. I'm afraid Mr. Smith is in New York all this week. I'm afraid she's on the other line. I'm afraid Ms Walker is out of the office at the moment. Can I take a message? I’m afraid he won’t be able to phone you back until this afternoon. I'm afraid Ms Samuels is on holiday until next Wednesday. I'm afraid Mr. Jameson is in a meeting at the moment. I'm afraid you've been put through to the wrong department. I'm afraid he's on a business trip until Thursday. I'm afraid Mrs. Reeves is at our Head Office today. 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 on our Facebook fan page. See you next time!

Jun 1, 2010 • 28min
April 2010
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. Podcast Transcription Hi and welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast from mansióninglés.com, recorded for April 2010. Thank you for all your positive feedback and comments on last month’s newsletter. Gracias por sus amables palabras sobre el cuaderno del mes pasado. Especialmente en nuestra página de Facebook. Si quieres seguirnos y participar en la página, busca La Mansión del Inglés desde tu cuenta de Facebook. OK, let’s practise some irregular verbs. Vamos a practicar algunos verbos irregulares en inglés. Cuando hablo Español, es muy difícil para mi saber cuando hay que decir el verbo ser o estar. En inglés es más fácil porque solo hay un verbo. Es el verbo to be. Escucha y repite: be – was/were – been El verbo golpear is to beat – beat – beat – beaten El verbo llegar a ser is to become - become – became – became Empezar to begin – begin - began – begun Morder bite – bite - bit – bitten El verbo soplar blow - blow – blew – blown El verbo romper is to break - break – broke – broken Traer/llevar is to bring - bring – brought – brought Edificar is to build - build – built – built Quemar is to burn. There are two possible forms for the past and participle of burn. Hay dos formas posibles – burnt – BURNT or burned – BURNED. Repeat: to burn – burn - burnt / burned - burnt / burned Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir el segundo y tercero forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. be – was / were – been beat – beat – beaten become – became – became begin – began – begun bite – bit – bitten blow – blew – blown break – broke – broken bring – brought – brought build – built – built burn – burnt / burned – burnt / burned Now let’s practise some idioms. Idioms are spoken or written sentences where the meaning is not always obvious from the individual words used. For example, My hands are tied means I have no choice. I can’t help you my hands are tied. Repeat: I’m sorry, my hands are tied. Tied – atado - to tie. Repeat: I’m sorry, my hands are tied. I’m afraid my hands are tied. Hold your horses means that you are doing something too fast and they would like you to slow down. Hold your horses, will you! Just wait a minute. Repeat: Wait a minute, just hold your horses. If you swallow your pride, you admit that you have been wrong about something or someone. You accept that you have to do something that is embarrassing. Swallow means tragar in Spanish and pride is orgullo. Repeat: Swallow your pride and apologise to her. I had to swallow my pride. People who burn the candle at both ends work all hours of the day and night. They get little sleep or rest because they are busy until late every night and then get up early every morning. Repeat: She's burning the candle at both ends studying for her exams. If something fishy is going on, then something suspicious is happening. If something is going on, algo esta pasando What’s going on? ¿Qué ocurre? Fishy can mean suspicious. For example: There are strange noises coming from David’s bedroom. Something fishy’s going on in there. Repeat: There’s something very fishy going on. If someone is a dark horse, they are secretive and might surprise you. Like a dark horse in a horse race. Repeat: She’s a dark horse that one! If you kill two birds with one stone you do two things at once. To kill is matar and a stone is una piedra.I saw some friends when I was in Madrid visiting my parents. I killed two birds with one stone. Repeat: I killed two birds with one stone. A can of worms is a situation which causes a lot of trouble for you when you start to deal with it. A can is una lata and worms are gusanos. So, if you open up a can of worms, you cause a lot of trouble for yourself. Repeat: If you do that, you open up a can of worms. You’re opening a can of worms, you know. If you let the cat out of the bag, pones en el aire lo que esta escondido. You reveal a secret or a surprise by accident. I was trying to keep the party a secret, but Sarah went and let the cat out of the bag. Repeat: Don’t say anything. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t let the cat out of the bag. If someone looks like a million dollars, they look fantastic. Wow! I love that dress, you look like a million dollars. Repeat: You look like a million dollars. It’s officially spring now - estamos ya en la primavera oficialmente - and maybe you’re starting to think about your holidays. I know I am. So, let’s practise some holiday vocabulary. When you travel by ship and stop at different places you go on a cruise. C-R-U-I-S-E. Be careful of the pronunciation. Listen: cruise, like Tom Cruise. Repeat: cruise. I’m going on a cruise. Notice the expression to go on. We go on holiday, we go on a trip, on a business trip. Repeat: I’m going on a trip to Barcelona. When are you going on your Mediterranean cruise? How often do you go on business trips? Going on a trip is when you go somewhere, stay there and come back (on business or on holiday). It’s probably more common to say “go on a trip” than “travel”. Trip is a countable noun, travel is uncountable. “I went on a trip to Paris” – no se dice XI went on a travelX) When you travel by plane you take a flight. Flight is a noun. The verb is to fly. Repeat: What time’s your flight? Did you find a cheap flight? Who are you flying with? A tour is when you visit several places following an organised plan. Last year we went to Egypt on a package tour. A package tour is when the flights, hotels, transportation etc are included in the price. When you travel a long way by sea, or in space, it’s called a voyage. “They embarked on a voyage across the sea.” – se fueron de viaje por mar. When you travel from place to place by road, train etc. you go on a journey. Un viaje en train is a train journey. How long is the journey from Barcelona to Valencia? Repeat: How long is the journey from Barcelona to Valencia? Is it a long journey? Now listen to, and repeat, the following holiday collocations: Sea - deep blue sea, calm sea, cold sea, rough sea (a rough sea is agitado, picado the opposite of a rough sea is a calm sea) tour - coach tour, sightseeing tour, package tour , guided tour (if you go sightseeing, haces turismo. – I went sightseeing in Paris. The sights are the famous and interesting things in a city. What are the sights in Paris? The Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Champs-Elysees. To see them is to go sightseeing. Repeat: go sightseeing. I went sightseeing in London. I saw all the sights. What are the sights in London? What’s the name of that big clock? Big Ben. What’s the name of that famous department store where the Queen goes shopping? Harrods. What’s the name of that big house where the Queen lives? Buckingham Palace. Where do David and Victoria Beckham live? Beckingham Palace! holiday - summer holiday, package holiday, beach holiday, adventure holiday trip coach trip (what’s the difference between coach and bus? A coach is usually for longer journeys, maybe from one city to another city. A bus is for travelling inside a city, for shorter journeys. A coach is usually more comfortable than a bus.) Repeat: We’re going on a coach trip. It’s cheaper to take a coach than a train, boat trip – a boat trip on the River Thames, day trip, business trip resort (a resort is un centro turístico) - holiday resort, tourist resort, seaside resort, popular resort (seaside means playa, costa. I love going to seaside resorts – but not in England, the weather’s terrible!) beach – a crowded beach (a crowded beach es una playa llena de gente Repeat: It’s crowded. The beach is crowded. It’s a crowded beach.) golden beach, sandy beach (sand is arena, so the adjective sandy means arenoso) repeat: a sandy beach, deserted beach (deserted means desierto o abandanado) In the advanced section this month, we practised writing cleft sentences. Listen to the examples and repeat the sentences. It was Bram Stoker who wrote Dracula in 1897. It was in 1897 that Bram Stoker wrote Dracula. It was Dracula that Bram Stoker wrote in 1897. What people really love is Baloo the bear. Baloo the bear is what people really love. It is Baloo the bear that people really love. What this bear is called is Baloo. Baloo is what this bear is called. This bear is called Baloo. Most sightings have been reported in the Indian Jungle. It is (in) the Indian Jungle where most sightings have been reported. The Indian Jungle is where most sightings have been reported. Suddenly the bear appeared out of nowhere. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the bear appeared. Right there in front of me danced the cuddly bear. It was the cuddly bear that danced right there in front of me. What I didn’t expect to see in the jungle was a dancing bear. A dancing bear was the last thing I expected to see in the jungle. In the business English section this month, there was an exercise to practise abbreviations in business English. Listen to the abbreviations and try to say what they stand for before I say them. AGM - Annual General Meeting CEO - Chief Executive Officer COB - Chairman Of the Board a/c account ASAP - as soon as possible ATM - automated teller machine (Am. English - cash dispenser, Br. English – cashpoint) Attn - for the attention of cc - copy to Co - company COD - cash on delivery dept - department ETA - estimated time of arrival GDP - gross domestic product GNP - gross national product Inc - incorporated Jr - junior Ltd - limited company N/A - not applicable NB - Nota Bene (Latin - it is important to note) PA - personal assistant p.a. - per annum (Latin - per year) p.w. - per week Plc - public limited company p.p. - per pro (Latin - used before signing in a person's absence) PR - public relations p.s. - post scriptum (Latin – in Spanish posdata P.D.) pto - please turn over qty - quantity R & D - research and development re - with reference to RSVP - repondez s'il vous plait (French - please reply) VAT - value added tax VIP - very important person 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 mansioningles.com 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 visit us on our Facebook fan page.

Jun 1, 2010 • 16min
March 2010
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. Podcast Transcription Hi and welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast from mansióninglés.com, recorded for March 2010. And a big thank you to everyone who sent us suggestions and ideas to improve our monthly newsletter, our cuaderno mensual. One of the things you asked for was more grammar, especially verbs. Listen to these 8 verbs in Spanish and try to say the English translation before I do. Then repeat the verb and the sentences to practise pronunciation. Escucha y repite: ser/estar – to be – I am, you are, we are, he, she and it is, they are. En el pasado - I was, you were, we were, he, she and it was, they were hablar ¿Qué es hablar en ingles? = to speak – it’s an irregular verb - es un verbo irregular - speak, spoke, spoken – I spoke to him, he spoke to me. Have you spoken to her? No? Haven’t you spoken to her yet? My God! Are you speaking to me? I’m speaking to you. tener – tener means to have – it’s an irregular verb, listen - have, had, had – I have, he, she, it has, we have, they have - I had a dream, he had a great idea. Have you had lunch yet? I haven’t had a hamburger for ages. Repeat: a hamburger – had a hamburger – haven’t had a hamburger - I haven’t had a hamburger for ages. - I haven’t had a hamburger for ages. escuchar - to listen – a regular verb – es un verbo regular – I listen, you listen, we listen he, she, it listens, they listen. I listened to the mansión Inglés podcast last month. It was fantastic! Have you listened to this podcast yet? My sister always listens to the podcast. levanter(se) - to get up – get up is a phrasal verb – to get up – el pasado es - got up. I always get up early, My mum gets up late. What time did you get up this morning? Yesterday I got up at 7. leer - to read - an irregular verb – read, read, read. – I love reading - I’m reading a great book at the moment, How often do you read? Have you read any good books lately? I read your email this morning. ir(se) - to go – go is an irregular verb – go – went – gone, I go to work by train. She goes on holiday once a year. I went to the cinema last night. My neighbour’s gone to Italy for a week. Have you gone mad? Conducir - to drive – another irregular verb – another means uno más. - another irregular verb - drive, drove, driven. Repeat: drive, drove, driven. I don’t like driving in traffic. She drove to France last summer. Have you ever driven on the left? Ok, let’s practise some phrasal verbs. Listen to the Spanish and try to say the English translation before I do. Then repeat the verb and the sentences to practise pronunciation. Escucha y repite: dejar - give up – you should give up smoking. darse prisa - hurry up! – Hurry up or we’ll be late. fregar - wash up – I’ll wash up crecer - grow up – I grew up in London continuar, aguantar - carry on – Don’t stop, carry on. esperar - hold on – please hold on a minute. tener ganas de algo/de hacer algo - look forward to – I’m really looking forward to the weekend. tirar algo a la basura - throw away – Did you throw away my red T-shirt? encender/apagar - turn on/off, switch on/off – Can you turn off the light? hablar - talk about – What are you talking about? buscar - look for – I’m looking for my other sock. estropearse - break down – My car’s never broken down. Recuerdas que cuando el phrasal verb tiene un objeto, se va entre el verbo y la partícula, o después. For example: I threw away the chicken. or I threw the chicken away. El objeto tambien puedo ser un pronombre. For example: I threw it away. (‘it’ is the chicken) Por lo cual, existe phrasal verbs que no se puede insertar el objecto entre el verbo y su partículo. For example I’m looking for a flat. No se dice: XI’m looking a flat for.X Give up smoking. Can we say “give smoking up”? yes. Wash up the dishes. Can we say “wash the dishes up? Yes Talk about the weather. Can we say “Talk the weather about?” No I’m looking forward to the weekend. Can we say “I’m looking the weekend forward”? No. Collocations – las colocaciones – some words like to go together. We say do business not Xmake businessX, for example and we say make money not Xdo moneyX. Let’s practise some. To have a feeling - I had a feeling that she was trying to trick me into lending her money. To pay attention - prestar atención – Please pay attention and listen to what I’m saying. To pay someone a compliment – I can’t remember the last time someone paid me a compliment. To take action – We must do something now. Take action immediately. To have a drink – Do you fancy having a coffee after class? Do you fancy? means ¿Tienes ganas? o ¿Te apetece? - Do you fancy having a beer? We can say “Do you fancy drinking a beer? But it’s more common to use have for food and drink than the verbs to eat and to drink. For example: I had a pizza. I’m having chicken for dinner. Shall we have a cocktail? What will you have? I’ll have a vodka and coke. To pay your respects to someone – After the funeral we paid our respects to her family. To take a liking to someone - I took a liking to our new boss as soon as he introduced himself. To take a chance – I won’t marry her. I can’t take that chance. Business Vocabulary If you’ve read the newsletter, the cuaderno, you should know these business expressions. Try to say them after the description. When two companies decide to join together, this is called a merger. If a company employs more workers, we can say that it has taken on more staff. The organisation that negotiates with the management for the workers is the union If a company "cuts jobs" it has fewer workers Extra money for doing extra work is called overtime Until a company needs something, it stores it in a depot A company that has a specialised product or service has a market niche When one company takes control of another it’s called a takeover A company which has a lot of money in the bank has a cash pile One way for a company to raise a lot of money is to issue shares Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening and take care. That was a mansion Ingles podcast from mansioningles.com.


