English Clockworking - Demystifying English Grammar

Study Block 1: The verb and its characteristics
Part 1: Nice to meet you, I am a verb.

In this first block we will discover the verb is a mate full of special powers and weaknesses. We will see they have conjugation characteristics, duration, meaning, voice, mood, etc.

1. Duration of a verb: Stative verbs vs dynamic verbs:
   
   The verbs according to its duration, that is the meaning period of time described by the verb, can be stative or dynamic.
   
   Stative verbs are those ones who have no duration and no distinguished endpoint because they describe states, characteristics about something or someone and states and characteristics can't be considered over time Let's see some examples:
   
   Jeff has red hair. ('has' shows a characteristic about Jeff).
   Nimlot likes his students very much. ('likes' shows Nimlot's feelings).
   Julia wants a computer. ('wants' shows Julia's desire about a computer).
   
   One important thing about the stative verb is the fact they can't be used in the continuous tenses because of their indefinite duration. So we can never say 'Jeff is having red hair' because his hair is always red.
   
   Here are some important verbs that deserve our attention once they are stative: Like, know, belong, love, realise, fit, hate, suppose, contain, want, mean, consist, need, understand, seem, prefer, believe, depend, agree, remember, matter, mind, recognise, see, own, appear, look (=seem), sound, taste, smell, hear, astonish, deny, disagree, please, impress, satisfy, promise, surprise, doubt, think (=have an opinion), feel (=have an opinion), wish, imagine, concern, dislike, be, have, deserve, involve, include, lack, measure (=have length etc), possess, owe, weigh (=have weight). These verbs CAN'T be used in continuous tenses.
   
   Dynamic verbs ave duration, that is, they occur over time. This time may or may not have a defined endpoit and may or may not have ocurred. Let's see some examples:
   
   Jeff teaches French with CEM. ('teaches' show an action Jeff performs as a routine).
   Linda travels to her parents' house every year. ('travels' shows an action linda performs every year). Dynamic verbs can either be simple or continuous once they express actions over time. So, we can also say 'Jeff is teaching French with CEM at the moment' and 'Linda is travelling to her mother house'.
   *** Observation***
   
   Some verbs can be either stative or dynamic depending on the meaning.
   The main verbs in this category are: be, have, see, taste, think. Let's some examples with more details.
   
   You are stupid! (stative – 'are' shows a personality trace).
   You are being stupid” (dynamic – 'are being' in this case means behaving or acting)
   
   I have a car. (stative – 'have' shows something which is mine).
   I'm having lunch. (dynamic – 'have lunch is an expression which has the meaning of eating).
   
   I see two red birds there. (stative – 'see' is an ability you have).
   I'm seeing the doctor tomorrow. (dynamic – 'seeing' has the meaning of meeting).
2. Exercise: Decide if the verb is stative or dynamic.
   a) I have lunch with my family most evenings.
   b) I own two cats.
   c)I think orange juice is healthy.
   d) I'm thinking about moving to a new place.
   e)The new dish you prepared tastes great!
   f)I'm tasting the soup to see if it is too salty.

The answers to the questions may be sent to:
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Please comment and give suggestion about the lessons and the prgramme.
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English for Today by Nimlot Logan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Reading in the garden - Activity 1

Reading in the garden – Activity 1

Alliteration

Even notice how many cartoon characters have alliterated monikers. Woody Woodpecker. KO KO the Klown. Betty Boop. Duffy Duck. Tom Terrific. Pepe Le Pew. Mickey Mouse. Clyde Crashcup. TinTin Dudley Do-Right Count Chocolate, Tony the Tiger, Captain Crunch (boy I loved that stuff, three bowl in the morning a good time was to be had by all) Superman’s girlfriends were all alliteraty. Lana Lang from Smallville, Lois Lane reporter for the Daily Planet, Lori Lemaris, a mermaid from the sunken city of Atlantis Lyla Llerol, an actress from the bottle-city of Kandor, and Lena Luthor, Lex Luthor's sib. Sufferin' succotash.

Drip

Drip.
Drip.
Drip.

The faucet on the bathroom sink is leaking.

I get out of bed, walk to the bathroom, and tighten the knob.

And then go back to bed.

The water company will probably charge us more this month.

Not because of the wasted water, mind you. They have plenty of water.

Too much water, and it's gone to their heads.

Now, instead of charging people for the water they use, they hold everybody ransom with the threat of opening the valves at night and drowning you in your sleep.

It starts with a drip, I hear.

Drip.
Drip.

Glass beads

When you're done working a glass bead in the torch, you can't just drop it in a cooling blanket.

You need to cool it slowly so it doesn't cool too quickly.

If the bead cools too quickly, it'll break as it cools or weaken it so it will eventually break from stress fractures.

You need to cool it gradually to relieve those stresses.

That is why we must anneal it in the kiln.

It's kinda like life, really. Taking time to cool down properly.

Now put down that knife and get off the ledge slowly, please. You're making a scene.

Source: 100 world stories http://podcasting.isfullofcrap.com/

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English for Today by Nimlot Logan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

How should my English sound? Lesson 1

How my English should sound? Lesson 1

Part 1: Introduction to letters and sounds.

In writing words are made of letters. In speaking words are made of sounds. But letters are not always the same as sounds. For example the words 'car' and 'key' begin with the same sound /k/, but they are spelt different. If we see them in using phonemic symbols, that are a kind of special alphabet for writing sounds, they would be /kɑː/ and /kiː/.

The following group of words have use different letters (spelling) but they have the same sound.

Buy – Bye
Week – Weak
Two – To – Too
Sun – Son
Weigh – Way
Write – Write

The modern English alphabet consists of 26 letters. In this alphabet we can find vowels (a,e,i,o and u) and consonants (b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,q,r,s,t,v,w,x,y and z) and we use all of them to write any word in English. If we consider speaking, we also have vowel sounds and consonant sounds. The number of spelling consonants and vowels are not always the same number of phonetic consonants and vowels. A good example is the word 'calf': It is composed of 4 consonant and 1 vowel in spelling, but it has only 3 sounds – a consonant, a vowel and a consonant (CVC). If we compare the spelling with the sound we'll have: calf – /kɑːf/.

Let's practise a little bit:
1 – How many sounds are there in each word? Remember that in English the number of letter is not always the number of sounds.
1. dog
2. rabbit
3. frog
4. gorilla
5. snake
6. bee

2 – Now let's analyse the sounds according to the rhymes. Do they have the same first sounds? Do they rhyme? A rhyme happens when we group two or more words together and they have similar sounds. It is widely used to create, for example, cartoon names.

1. Phil the fox
2. Mary the canary
3. Ida the spider
4. Claire the bear
5. Polly the parrot
6. Deborah the zebra
7. Myrtle the turtle
8. Kitty the cat

Bibliography: HANKOK, Mark. English Pronunciation in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

This blog is a non commercial, non profit educational website.


English for Today by Nimlot Logan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.