22/12/12

LEGADO INFINITO



Hello everybody, after four years blogging in Myplaceforenglish I have published my first novel in Spanish LEGADO INFINITO. I hope you have the opportunity to read it, I just leave the links where you can get it.

 Thank you for your support.

Muchas gracias a todos tras cuatro años de apoyo en Myplaceforenglish. He publicado mi primera novela : LEGADO INFINITO. Espero que podáis leerla . Os dejo unos links para adquirirla, en Amazon sólo por 0,98€. Espero que os guste, y mis antiguos alumnos : No me critiquéis.
Muchísimas gracias.

 
 
Click in the cover to get the book.
 
 
 




10/12/12

Forming Comparatives and Superlatives from Adjectives


CUADRO RESUMEN DE LA COMPARATIVA Y EL SUPERLATIVO DE LOS ADJETIVOS EN INGLÉS.

Forming Comparatives and Superlatives from Adjectives:


Type of Adjective Example of Type Comparative Superlative

One Syllable

strong
add "er"
stronger
add "est"
strongest

One Syllable Ending Vowel Consonant

big
thin
double consonant and
add "er"

bigger
thinner
double consonant and
add "est"

biggest
thinnest
More Than One Syllable
famous
add "less" or "more"
more famous
add "most" or "least"
least famous
More Than One Syllable Ending "y"
silly
remove "y" add "ier"
sillier
for less
less silly
remove "y" add "iest"
silliest
for least
least silly
Irregular
bad
good
many
no rules
worse
etter
more
no rules
worst
best
most
 

15/11/12

BRITISH VS AMERICAN ENGLISH LESSER-KNOWN WORDS





  On the whole, British and American speakers of English have very few problems understanding one another. Over the last half a century or so television and film have done much to familiarise Americans with British English (BrE) and Britons with American English (AmE).
There are actually thousands of vocabulary differences between British and American English. While many of these words can be instantly understood by speakers from the other country, other words might easily baffle someone who hasn’t spent a long period of time in both countries.
First let’s look at some of the well-known vocabulary differences between Britain and the United States. Native speakers from either country should know all of these:

10 well-known vocabulary differences

petrol (BrE), gas (AmE)
pavement (BrE), sidewalk (AmE)
lift (BrE), elevator (AmE)
boot (BrE), trunk (AmE)
lorry (BrE), truck (AmE)
sweets (BrE), candy (AmE)
car park (BrE), parking lot (AmE)
motorway (BrE), highway (AmE)
biscuit (BrE), cookie (AmE)
rubbish (BrE), garbage (AmE)
OK, they were the easy ones. Now try 10 more difficult ones, some of which may be completely unknown or are liable to cause some confusion between an American and British speaker.

10 lesser-known vocabulary differences

How many do you know? (The correct answers are at the bottom of the page.)
  1. _______ (BrE) / barf (AmE)
  2. pedestrain crossing (BrE) / _______ (AmE)
  3. _______ (BrE) / downspout (AmE)
  4. drawing pin (BrE) / _______ (AmE)
  5. flyover (BrE) / _______(AmE)
  6. _______ (BrE) / teeter-totter (AmE)
  7. _______ (BrE) / rutabaga (AmE)
  8. _______ (BrE) / eggplant (AmE)
  9. _______ (BrE) / antsy (AmE)
  10. braces (BrE) / _______ (AmE)
(Scroll down to see the answers.)




Here are the answers:
  1. vomit (BrE) / barf (AmE)
  2. pedestrain crossing (BrE) / crosswalk (AmE)
  3. drainpipe (BrE) / downspout (AmE)
  4. drawing pin (BrE) / thumbtack (AmE)
  5. flyover (BrE) / overpass (AmE)
  6. see-saw (BrE) / teeter-totter (AmE)
  7. swede (BrE) / rutabaga (AmE)
  8. aubergine (BrE) / eggplant (AmE)
  9. fidgety (BrE) / antsy (AmE)
  10. braces (BrE) / suspenders (AmE)

6/11/12

READING ABOUT... MICKEY MOUSE

Mickey Mouse


Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character who has become an icon for the Walt Disney Company. Mickey Mouse is short for Mitchell Mouse. It was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and voiced by Walt Disney.
The first appearance of Mickey Mouse was in Plane Crazy on May 15, 1928. But the Walt Disney Company celebrates Mickey Mouse birth as November 18, 1928 upon the release of Steamboat Willie, because it is the first Mickey Mouse Cartoon with sound. The anthropomorphic mouse has developed along the years. He first appeared in color in 1935. The first Technicolor Disney film was Flowers and Trees from 1932. He also evolved from being simply a character in animated cartoons and comic strips to become one of the most recognizable symbols in the world.
Mickey's popularity has grown around the world. This was due to his angelic nature. Mickey never does anything immoral. However, in 2009 the Walt Disney Company announced that they will begin to re-brand the Mickey Mouse character by moving away from his pleasant, cheerful image and reintroducing the more devious side of his personality, starting with the upcoming Epic Mickey, a Mickey Mouse video game. The Walt Disney company thus intends to show the mischievous side of Mickey's personality.
Source: Wikipedia
Reading Comprehension:
  1. Mickey Mouse's birthday is celebrated on
    a. May 15, 1928
    b. November 18, 1928
  2. The first Mickey Mouse with sound first appeared in
    a. Steamboat Willie
    b. Plane Crazy
  3. Mickey Mouse first appeared in color in
    a. 1932
    b. 1935
  4. Mickey Mouse has always been popular thanks to
    a. his good nature,
    b. mischievous side of his character.

27/10/12

FEWER OR LESS ?


It is not only learners of English who confuse less and fewer – some native speakers also frequently use them incorrectly.

But less and fewer are not actually so difficult to use correctly: less means ’a lower amount’ (menor cantidad de algo), while fewer expresses ‘a lower number’ (menor número de algo).
 In other words:
  • fewer and less are both the opposite of more;
  • we use fewer with countable nouns; Fewer con nombres contables
  • we use less with uncountable nouns. Less se usa con incontables.
Let’s look at some examples:
  • I’ve got less time than I had last year. (time = uncountable noun)
  • He’s got less money than his wife. (money = uncountable noun)
  • Low-fat milk has fewer calories than full-fat. (calories = countable noun)
  • The government built fewer houses last year. (houses = countable noun)

Easy-to-remember tip

If thinking about countable and uncountable nouns is a bit too technical for you, here’s an easy way to remember how to get less and fewer right: Use fewer when the noun is plural (e.g.doors, dogs, people, mistakes, days, etc.) and you will always be correct.

22/10/12

READING ABOUT... STEVE JOBS (APPLE'S BRAIN)


Steve Jobs, the American businessman and technology visionary who is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc, was born on February 24, 1955. His parents were two University of Wisconsin graduate students, Joanne Carole Schieble and Syrian-born Abdulfattah Jandali. They were both unmarried at the time. Jandali, who was teaching in Wisconsin when Steve was born, said he had no choice but to put the baby up for adoption because his girlfriend's family objected to their relationship.
      Steve Jobs
The baby was adopted at birth by Paul Reinhold Jobs (1922–1993) and Clara Jobs (1924–1986). Later, when asked about his "adoptive parents," Jobs replied emphatically that Paul and Clara Jobs "were my parents." He stated in his authorized biography that they "were my parents 1,000%." Unknown to him, his biological parents would subsequently marry (December 1955), have a second child, novelist Mona Simpson, in 1957, and divorce in 1962. The Jobs family moved from San Francisco to Mountain View, California when Steve was five years old. The parents later adopted a daughter, Patti. Paul was a machinist for a company that made lasers, and taught his son rudimentary electronics and how to work with his hands. The father showed Steve how to work on electronics in the family garage, demonstrating to his son how to take apart and rebuild electronics such as radios and televisions. As a result, Steve became interested in and developed a hobby of technical tinkering. Clara was an accountant who taught him to read before he went to school. Jobs's youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. At Monta Loma Elementary school in Mountain View, he was a prankster whose fourth-grade teacher needed to bribe him to study. Jobs tested so well, however, that administrators wanted to skip him ahead to high school—a proposal his parents declined. Jobs then attended Cupertino Junior High and Homestead High School in Cupertino, California. During the following years Jobs met Bill Fernandez and Steve Wozniak, a computer whiz kid. Following high school graduation in 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Reed was an expensive college which Paul and Clara could ill afford. They were spending much of their life savings on their son's higher education.

Jobs dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes, including a course on calligraphy. He continued auditing classes at Reed while sleeping on the floor in friends' dorm rooms, returning Coke bottles for food money, and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple In 1976, Wozniak invented the Apple I computer. Jobs, Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, an electronics industry worker, founded Apple computer in the garage of Jobs's parents in order to sell it.

They received funding from a then-semi-retired Intel product-marketing manager and engineer Mike Markkula. Through Apple, Jobs was widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution and for his influential career in the computer and consumer electronics fields. Jobs also co-founded and served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, when Disney acquired Pixar. Jobs died at his California home around 3 p.m. on October 5, 2011, due to complications from a relapse of his previously treated pancreatic cancer. Source: Wikipedia

Comprehension:

  1. Steve Jobs never knew who his real parents were.
    a.
    True
    b.
    False
  2. His adoptive parents were rich.
    a.
    True.
    b.
    False.
  3. Jobs was a university graduate.
    a.
    True
    b.
    False

21/10/12

SO AND SUCH. TOO - ENOUGH

SUCH + Nouns

such + a + (adjective) + singular noun + that + result
(It is common to put an adjective before the noun)
  • He is such a tight person that he even reuses his servillettes.
  • Christopher is such a handsome man that all the ladies want him.
  • She had such a long speech that everyone stopped paying attention to her.
such + plural/uncountable noun + that + result
  • She has such big feet that she has to buy special shoes.
  • Woodward Restaurant has such good food that it's always full of people.

SO / SUCH in exclamations

In exclamations we drop the word 'that' and use:
i) such + noun (singular/plural)
ii) so + adjective
  • You are such an idiot! (noun)
  • Celebrities have such weird tastes! (noun)
  • You are so stupid! (adjective)
  • It's so sunny outside! (adjective)
CLICK HERE TO TRY YOUR UNDERSTANDING 


Too/Enough



Too and Enough are used with adjectives and indicate degree.

 Too means more than necessary, and it precedes the adjective.  

Enough means sufficient and usually follows the adjective and precedes nouns.
    He is too old to ride the Merry-Go-Round.
    She has too much money.
    Tony was tall enough to play on the basketball team.
    They were smart enough to pass the test.

    (NOT: enough tall)
    (NOT: enough smart)
Enough can also be used with nouns. In such cases, enough usually precedes the word it modifies.
    I have enough money for the CD player.
    I don't have enough (money) for the computer.
    There aren't enough people to make a team.
In some cases, enough can stand alone.
    I have had enough of this nonsense.
    Enough is enough!
Common problems include using very in place of too or enough.
She is very young to drink alcohol.
She is too young to drink alcohol.
He is not very tough to play football.
He is not tough enough to play football.

(Wrong)
(Correct)
(Wrong)
(Correct)

19/10/12

BODY VOCABULARY




18/10/12

ADJECTIVE ORDER


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. This page will explain the different types of adjectives and the correct order for them.

1. The basic types of adjectives

OpinionAn opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you).
For example: silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult.
 
SizeA size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.
For example: large, tiny, enormous, little
 
AgeAn age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.
For example: ancient, new, young, old
 
ShapeA shape adjective describes the shape of something.
For example: square, round, flat, rectangular
 
ColourA colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something.
For example: blue, pink, reddish, grey
 
OriginAn origin adjective describes where something comes from.
For example: French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek
 
MaterialA material adjective describes what something is made
from.For example: wooden, metal, cotton, paper
 
PurposeA purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with “-ing”.
For example: sleeping (as in “sleeping bag”), roasting (as in “roasting tin”)

The order of adjectives in English is:

 

OPINION+SIZE+AGE+SHAPE+COLOUR+ORIGIN+MATERIAL+PURPOSE+ NOUN

12/10/12

PHRASAL VERBS RELATED TO FAMILY


TAKE AFTER:

He takes after his father.

GET ON ... WITH:

Do you get on well with your sister?

GET TOGETHER: REUNIRSE

How often does your family get together?

LOOK LIKE: PARECERSE A

Do you look like your parents?

BE NAMED AFTER: LLAMARSE POR ALGUIEN.

Are you named after your father?