ADJECTIVE ORDER

In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a noun -- for example, "He's a silly young fool," or "she's a smart, energetic woman." When you use more than one adjective, you have to put them in the right order, according to type.

The basic types of adjectives

Opinion
An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you). Examples:silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult
Size
A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is. Examples:large, tiny, enormous, little
Age
An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is. Examples:ancient, new, young, old
Shape
A shape adjective describes the shape of something. Examples:square, round, flat, rectangular
Colour
A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something. Examples:blue, pink, reddish, grey
Origin
An origin adjective describes where something comes from. Examples:French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek
Material
A material adjective describes what something is made from. Examples:wooden, metal, cotton, paper
Purpose
A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with "-ing". Examples:sleeping (as in "sleeping bag"), roasting (as in "roasting tin")

THE ORDER: OPINION, SIZE, AGE, SHAPE, COLOUR, ORIGIN, MATERIAL, PURPOSE

FOR EXAMPLE:

"a SILLY SMALL OLD ROUND RED ENGLISH LEATHER SLEEPING pillow "

Activity One.

Dates in Written English

British English

In British English the day is usually put before the month. If you wish, you can add the ending of the ordinal number. The preposition of before the month is usually dropped. You can put a comma
before the year, but this is not common anymore in British English. It is common, however, if the date is part of a sentence: The conference takes place 10-12 December, 2003.(i)

Written Example: (the)5th (of) October, Two thousand and Four.
2004 / 5th October,2004

REMEMBER: when you say the year you have to say the numbers in pairs, when we talk about thousand; 1234 ( twelve, thirty-four); 1987 (nineteen, eighty-seven).

We say "the" and "of" but we don't write them.
American English

In American English the month is usually put before the day. If you wish, you can put the definite article before the day. It is common to write a comma before the year.

Example: October (the) 5(th), 2004

You can also write the date by using numbers only. The most common forms are:

Example: 5/10/04 or 5-10-04

Interesting Stuff

AD stands for Anno Domini (Latin for "In the year of (Our) Lord"), abbreviated as AD. It defines an epoch based on the traditionally-reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus of Nazareth. it is used in the English language to denote years after the start of this time.

BC stands for Before Christ (from the Ancient Greek "Christos" or "Anointed One", referring to Jesus), abbreviated as BC, it is used in the English language to denote years before the start of this time.

Some non-Christians also use the abbreviations AD and BC without intending to acknowledge the Christian connotation, but some people prefer the alternatives 'CE' (Common Era) and 'BCE' (Before Common Era), arguing that they are more neutral terms. .

A millennium (pl. millennia) is a period of one thousand years.

A century is a period of one hundred consecutive years. Centuries are numbered ordinally (e.g. "the nineteenth century").

A decade is a period of 10 years.

The decades from 1920 to 1999, are called "the Twenties", "the Sixties", etc. But the current decade has no universally accepted name. Some refer to the decade as the "twenty hundreds" while others may refer to it as the "two thousands". In written form, this could appear as "the '00s" or "the 2000s". But writing "the 2000s" or simply saying "the two-thousands" can cause confusion, since this could refer to the entire 21st century or even the entire millennium. Some people tried to popularize "the Noughties" as the decade's name. This is a play on words, nought means "zero" and noughties sounds both like nineties and naughty.

You'll find some more interesting facts about days and dates in the Interesting Facts Blog.

!Note - When writing the date as numbers British and American English differ. To write the date 7th of September 2007 a Brit would write dd/mm/yy (07/09/07) and an American would write mm/dd/yy (09/07/07). This often causes great confusion. It's better to write the date in full (7th September 2007 or September 7th 2007). It also looks nicer.


You can practice the "dates" in the Online Activities corner of this web.

SLANG: What's nip-and-tuck ?

“If women want to have a little nip-and-tuck, I understand. I haven’t yet, but talk to me in five years.”

Model Twiggy on giving nature a little help. (People)nip-and-tuck

*DEFINITION: plastic surgery; cosmetic surgery.

*Examples:
“Nip-and-tucks are common in Hollywood.”

“Mary asked her husband to get her a little nip-and-tuck for her 50th birthday.”

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a little nip-and-tuck if you can afford it.”

“Ashlee Simpson looks like she got some nip-and-tuck.”

* TEXT ABOUT THE TOPIC: (READING)

With her big eyes and stick-like figure, Twiggy was the It-girl of the 1960s. Now she is 60 herself, which makes her ancient in Hollywood years. But she still looks pretty good. How do you think she does it?

According to Twiggy, she doesn’t stay attractive and youthful through plastic surgery. She swears she’s never had a nip-and-tuck, even though it’s common for aging models and actresses to get a little beauty help from a surgeon. But Twiggy doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with plastic surgery. In another five years, she might decide she’s ready for a little nip-and-tuck of her own.

It doesn’t matter if you get a face lift, a tummy tuck, a nose job, or an all-new you. Any type of plastic surgery can be called a nip-and-tuck. It’s also used to refer to plastic surgery in general. Sometimes nip-and-tuck gets shortened to nip/tuck. Plastic surgeons nip off and tuck in all the little things you don’t like about yourself.

DEBATE / TIME TO DISCUSS IN CLASS:

Would you ever get a little nip-and-tuck?

What do you think about plastic surgery?

source: English Baby

FUTURE SIMPLE

FORMS OF THE FUTURE SIMPLE/ FORMAS DEL FUTURO SIMPLE

Uses of the Future Simple /Usos del Futuro Simple:

Para qué se utiliza el futuro simple:

1. To talk about spontaneous decisions when we're talking / Para hablar sobre decisiones que hacemos espontáneamente en el momento de hablar.

Ejemplo:
Pablo: "What are you doing this evening?"
Mario: "Oh . . ., I don't know. I think I'll probably go to the theatre."
Pablo: "Can I come?"

El futuro simple es una forma más indecisa de hablar en futuro. Su uso comunica no solamente que hablamos sobre algo que va a ocurrir en el futuro, sino que hemos tomado la decisión ahora y no antes.

Nota: Junto con el futuro simple se suelen utilizar ciertas palabras para hacerlo aún más indeciso como "probably" (probablemente) y "I think" (pienso, creo).

2. Para pedir ayuda /To ask for help - "Will you help me?" (¿Me ayudas?) "Will you read this?" (¿Lees esto?) "Will you open the door?" (¿Abres la puerta?)

3. Para ofrecer ayuda/ To make some Offers – "I'll help you." ("Te ayudo.") "I'll open the door." ("Te abro la puerta.") "I'll carry those for you." ("Te llevo esos.")

4. Para hablar sobre predicciones basadas en poca evidencia. /Predictions in general, without evidence. - "I think it'll probably rain this evening so bring your umbrella." (Creo que probablemente lloverá esta tarde así que trae tu paraguas.) "I think the price of gasoline will probably go up so buy a more fuel-efficient car." (Pienso que el precio de la gasolina probablemente subirá así que compra un coche más eficiente.)