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:
e-mail: eng.4.today@gmail.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/eng4today
Facebook: www.facebook.com/eng4today
All the answers will commented by the teacher and sent back by email.
Please comment and give suggestion about the lessons and the prgramme.
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.

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.

English for Today News

Dear English for Today Friends.

After some time without any new activities on both blog and Facebook, I glady announce that English for Today is back to activity with news.

1. The webpage www.sites.google.com/site/eng4today is officially cancelled. All written stuff will be posted on English for Today blog - www.eng4today.blogspot.com, and the links for the activities can be found on English for Today Facebook page - www.facebook.com/eng4today,  and on English for Today twitter - www.twitter.com/eng4today (Feel more than invited to follow it :D) and also by English for Today Friends group message on Second Life.

2. Now English for Today also has a profile on Youtube - www.youtube.com/eng4today. The videos are still being prepared. The links for the videos will also be shared on Facebook, Twitter and SL English for Today Friends group.

3. Finally, we now also have a space on Skype. It is the English for Today Conference Centre - www.skype.com/eng.4.today . There we can have chats whose subjects can be chosen by the participants, English grammar doubt solutions, pronunciation tips and English lessons. But to make it possible I need your help. I would ask to all English for Today Friends who are interested in this model of acticity and already have a Skype profile to send me an e-mail on eng.4.today@gmail.com with your Skype profile name and the best time for the activities according to your time zone and free time. After analysing an suitable time to all participants a schedule will be made and shared will you. If you don't have a Skype account you can create a profile on www.skype.com .

Feel free to ask about the activities or give suggestions to improve them. Send a e-mail to eng.4.today@gmail.com or if you are a Second Life member send a notecard titled 'Doubt about English for Today' or 'Suggestion for English for Today'.

Thank you very much for being an English for Today Friend

Nimlot Logan

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

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Writing: Description

Today we'll see our first text modality, description. Through description we can share with people what we see and feel about the world. When we use description we make them imagine what we saw and experienced. To make it possible we use a very special kind of word: the adjective. So, let's learn how to use the adjective in our descriptions?

Order of the adjectives

When using more than one adjective to describe a noun we must pay attention to some rules:

a) Adjectives expressing opinion come first than adjectives meaning fact in word order
Ex: What a beautiful (opinion, that is, it is what you think about the rose) red (fact, the rose is red) rose.
b) Adjectives which describe general qualities come before those ones describing particular qualities.
Ex: John has a fast (general quality, that is, other cars can be fast) grey (more particular quality, that is, among all the cars we are talking about a grey one) car.

Exercise: Now we will practise a little our description skills. It'll be presented to you a painting named 'casinha nas montanhas' (little house by the mountains) by the Brazilian painter Antonia B.S. Faria.
Try to extract the most details you can from this painting using the tips above.

 Casinha nas montanhas. © 2011 Antonia B.S. Faria. This painting was used in this page with the prior consent of the author.

The answers to the questions may be sent to:
e-mail: eng.4.today@gmail.com
Orkut: http://www.orkut.com.br/Main#Profile?uid=13978883568364259345
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All the answers will commented by the teacher and sent back by email.
Please comment and give suggestion about the lessons and the blog.
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English for Today by Nimlot Logan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Word Classes 3: The Object (Direct and Indirect)

As we saw in the last lesson: The object can be a noun or a pronoun and is responsible for giving information about the subject.
Ex: I have a car. ('a car' is the object because it informs what 'I' (the subject) 'have' (verb).
Ex: Andrew loves her. ('her' is the object because it informs who 'Andrew' (subject) 'loves' (verb).

But before talking about the objects themselves, let's talk about transitivity. Transitivity happens when the action expressed by a verb 'transits' to an object making the sentence make sense.

When the subject performs an action expressed in a verb, this action can or cannot 'transit' to an object. If the verb needs an object to make the sentence make sense it is called transitive verb, but if the verb doesn't need an object to make the sentence make sense, it is called intransitive verb.

Ex: Sarah washes her hair. In this case 'washes' is a transitive verb because it needs the object 'her hair' to make the sentence make sense.
     My father died six years ago. In this case 'died' in an intransitive verb because it does not need anything else to make the sentence make sense. If the sentence was 'My father died', it would make sense.

Therefore, transitive verbs need objects to compliment the sentence meaning. If you use a transitive verb without an object the sentence won't make any sense.

But how can a verb action transit to the object?
The action expressed by a verb can transit to the object in two ways: Directly (generating a direct object) and indirectly (generating an indirect object). So, in English we have two kinds of objects: The Direct Object and The Indirect Object.
Let's see them individually.
1. The object direct is the one whose action expressed by the verb transits directly to it. In other words, the direct object is 'what' the verb performed.
In the example: 'Sarah washes her hair', 'her hair' is a direct object because the action of washing transits directly to it. 'Her hair' is what Sarah 'washes'.

2. The indirect object, in English, always come in a sentence with a direct object and is the one whose action expressed by the verb transits indirectly to it. In other words the indirect object is 'who received' the action perfomed by the verb through the direct object and it can appear in the sentence in two ways. Confusing? Let me give an example of each case.

1. Andy bought some chocolate for Paula. In this example 'some chocolate' is the direct object because the action of buying transits directly to it.'Some chocolate' is 'what' Andy 'bought'. But, for Paula is the indirect object because the action of buying transits indirectly to her. 'Paula' is 'who receives' some chocolate', the chocolate Andy bought, that is, the action transits indirectly through the direct object (some chocolate) to the indirect object (for Paula). In this case the indirect object comes with a preposition (for)
2. Andy bought Paula some chocolate. In this case the indirect object comes just after the verb and it's the most common two-object construction in English. To discover which object is the direct you can ask 'what' the verb performed and to discover which is the indirect you can ask 'to whom' the action was performed.
For making indirect objects using prepositions we usually use to or for. Use to with the following verbs: bring, feed, give, hand, lend, offer, owe, pass, pay, post, promise, read, sell, send, show, take, teach, tell, throw, write and use for with the following verbs: book, bring, build, buy, choose, cook, fetch, find, get, leave, make, order, pick, reserve, save
Exercises: 
1. Write the information in one sentence. Use the underlined part in the end of the sentence. Sometimes you'll need to use to.
a) Jack lent something to David. It was his watch.
b) Steve bought something to his girlfriend. It was a necklace.
c) Andrew ordered something to her daughter. It was some apple juice.
d) John helped someone. It was his aunt.

2. Decide if the sentence should be completed with to or for:
a) Book a flight ____ me, could you?
b) Don't show these papers ______ my boss, ok?
c) Write a letter _______ my customers.
d) Could you make some coffe ____ us?

The answers to the questions may be sent to:
e-mail: eng.4.today@gmail.com
Orkut: http://www.orkut.com.br/Main#Profile?uid=13978883568364259345
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/English-for-Today/177566135615065?
All the answers will commented by the teacher and sent back by email.
Please comment and give suggestion about the lessons and the blog.
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.

Word Classes 2: Parts of the sentence. (The subject, the verb and the predicate)

Sentence Structure

A sentence is compound basically of three elements: The subject, the verb and the predicate.

The subject is the element which the verb makes reference. For example:

I have a car. In this sentence, 'I' is the subject because the action expressed by 'have' is related to 'I'.

John is a teacher. In this example, the subject is 'John' because the state expressed by 'is' is related to 'John'.

A good way of finding the subject in a sentence is asking the verb who is performing the action or being the state the verb expresses.

Let's take the examples above:

I have a car. Q: Who has the car? A: I ('I' is the subject)

John is a teacher. Q: Who is a teacher? A: John ('John' is the subject)

The subject is a noun or a pronoun, that is any person or being (Peter, John, Ralph, a cat, the birds) and all subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, you and they).

The verb is a really important part of the sentence, because if you don't have a verb you can't make a sentence.

The predicate is the part responsible for giving additional information about the subject, that is, it is responsible for telling the hearer or the reader what exactly the subject is doing (action) or what it is (state). 

It is composed by the following structures: The object and the complement (predicative and adverbial).

1. The object can be a noun or a pronoun and is responsible for giving information about the subject.
   Ex: I have a car. ('a car' is the object because it informs what 'I' (the subject) 'have' (verb).
   Ex: Andrew loves her. ('her' is the object because it informs who 'Andrew' (subject) 'loves' (verb).
   1. The predicative can be found in two types: The predicative of the subject and the predicative of the object.
      a) The predicative of the subject is responsible for giving a quality to the subject in a static verb sentence:
      Ex: The car is red. ('red' is the predicative of the subject because it shows the colour the car is. Car is the subject of the sentence and 'is' is an static verb (it doesn't express an action)
      b) The predicative of the object is responsible for giving a quality to the object in an action verb sentence.
      Ex: Michael painted his wall blue. ('blue' is the predicative of the object because it shows what colour Michael painted his wall. Wall is the object of the sentence and 'paint' is an action verb.
      
   2. The adverbial complement is responsible for attributing a manner, a time, a position to the sentenceEx: The garage is near. ('near' is the adverbial complement because it shows 'how far' the garage is.
      
      
      Exercise:
      
      
      1. Identify in the following sentences which part of the sentence is underlined. For the parts of the predicate, specify if it is the object, the predicative or the adverbial.
      
      
      a) We're having a bad time.
      b) Mary really enjoys playing tennis.
      c) Steve works in a company.
      d) Dan often goes to the cinema.
      e) We're painting the roses red.
      f) Garry has gone to Australia last year.
      g) The scenery is very beautiful.
      h) Gabriel is sad very rarely.
      
      
      The answers to the questions may be sent to:
      e-mail: eng.4.today@gmail.com
      Orkut: http://www.orkut.com.br/Main#Profile?uid=13978883568364259345
      Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/English-for-Today/177566135615065?
      All the answers will commented by the teacher and sent back by email.
      Please comment and give suggestion about the lessons and the blog.
      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.