Where is the strangest place you've ever eaten a meal?
A new restaurant has opened in Britain. Find out what is so special about it. What's the name of the restaurant? Can anyone visit it? Who are the waiters and chefs working there? Do you think you would like to have dinner at this new restaurant? Leave a comment after listening to this interesting BBC recording.
Like articles, quantifiers are words that precede and modify nouns. They tell us how many or how much. Selecting the correct quantifier depends on the distinction between Count and Non-Count Nouns. See a representative list of quantifiers.
Click here to read a bit more about quantifiers and do some exercises.
I've just learnt about a new website Lyricstraining.com where you can practise your English using song lyrics. It's interactive and quite amusing. You can choose the level of difficulty too. Have a go at it, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Make sure you read the instructions (help) before you use it. Choose your level and go. Click here to try an example.
To express regret means to feel sorry or repentant about something you have done that you wish you had not done or you shouldn't have done or about something you haven't done that you now feel you should/could have done. I guess we all have things we regret if we look back in our lives, don't we?
We can see examples of regret in a context in this beautiful song by Elvis Presley: "Always on my mind".
Apart from St Valentine's day, February 14th 2010 is the first day of the Chinese new year, the year of the Tiger. The Chinese New Year day is always the second new moon after the winter solstice and therefore it changes from one year to another.
According to Chinese tradition, parents give their children clean, fresh banknotes at the start of the new year in order to bring them good luck. What happens when there is shortage of new bank notes or they are difficult to find?... it's time for a new business opportunity... read more here.
How much of a pizza lover are you? I just came across this report on Naples pizza. It's good news for pizza lovers. Have a look at it. You can read the report, listen to it and check the vocabulary. Nice and short exercise. Don't miss it!
Leave a comment on the blog about your favourite kind of restaurant when you eat out.
If you could choose would you prefer to live in a penthouse in fifth avenue, NY or in a picturesque cottage in the English countryside? Throughout history people have lived in many places, some more comfortable, luxurious or expensive than others. Here you have a nice exercise about places where people live and adjectives that you could use to describe those places. Have a go at it and send your teacher a short composition explaining where you would choose to live if you could and why.
Saint Valentine's Day is celebrated on 14 February, but how much do you know about the origin of this celebration? You can read and answer the questions about this text.
Feb 14 can be a wonderful day to fall in love -why not?, or at least to try. If you don't happen to be an expert, here you are given a few hints to help you to say 'I love you' with a guarantee of success. (Don't take it too seriously).
I found this cute song and I'm sure our classmate Juana Mari will love it.
Today we'll have a look at Conditional Clauses Type II, the so-called hypothetical conditions, because:
a. we don't expect the action in the if-clause to take place Ex: "If all the wars stopped, the world would be a much better place to live in." (unlikely to happen?)
b. the supposition in the if-clause is contrary to known facts or very unlikely to happen. Ex: "If I could fly I wouldn't have to spend money on buses." (contrary to known facts -people don't fly).
Type II conditionals are mainly used to make hypothesis, express wishes and give advice. Again, for more information on grammar and usage of this type of conditional sentences read these notes and visit this tutorial.
Conditional clauses are quite a difficult issue in English -they're also quite difficult to master in our own language and very often we hear people using the wrong tenses.
I have prepared some notes to help you get a clear idea of how conditional clauses work, the tenses we must use and the functions we can express with them.
We usually refer to Conditional clauses Type I as "Open condition" because we view the condition expressed in the if clause as something likely to happen. Ex: "If the weather is nice tomorrow, we'll go to the beach."
As you will see when you read the notes, we use this type of conditionals to express: general and particular cause-effect, advice, threat, offer, comments, etc...
Here you will find some exercises to practise Conditional clauses Type I
And yet another link dealing with grammar and exercises on Type I conditional clauses.
Good luck!
And now a little present: a beautiful poem called "If" by 1907 Literature Nobel Prize winner, Rudyard Kipling. Click here to read several translations of the poem If into Spanish; you can choose your favourite. And now, are you ready now to watch this magnificent video by George Horne? He has some excellent works, maybe you want to take a minute to see some of the things he does.
What are quantifiers?
I've just learnt about a new website Lyricstraining.com where you can practise your English using song lyrics. It's interactive and quite amusing. You can choose the level of difficulty too. Have a go at it, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Make sure you read the instructions (help) before you use it. Choose your level and go. Click here to try an example.
Apart from St Valentine's day, February 14th 2010 is the first day of the Chinese new year, the year of the Tiger. The Chinese New Year day is always the second new moon after the winter solstice and therefore it changes from one year to another.
How much of a pizza lover are you? I just came across this report on Naples pizza. It's good news for pizza lovers. Have a look at it. You can read the report, listen to it and check the vocabulary. Nice and short exercise. Don't miss it!
If you could choose would you prefer to live in a penthouse in fifth avenue, NY or in a picturesque cottage in the English countryside? Throughout history people have lived in many places, some more comfortable, luxurious or expensive than others. Here you have a nice exercise about places where people live and adjectives that you could use to describe those places. Have a go at it and send your teacher a short composition explaining where you would choose to live if you could and why.
Saint Valentine's Day is celebrated on 14 February, but how much do you know about the origin of this celebration? You can read and answer the questions about this text.
Conditional clauses are quite a difficult issue in English -they're also quite difficult to master in our own language and very often we hear people using the wrong tenses. 
