ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

I listened (and read the lyrics on your link for the bull song). It's a really upbeat song. Just the energy level you need I suppose, if you're going to be chased along a road by a bull!

You mentioned that your town's patron saint is Saint Anne. Can you tell us a bit more about her? What's her connection with Tudela?

I've blogged before about Saint Mungo, who's the patron saint of my home city - Glasgow. Follow the link above, then scroll down the page to Friday, 30 October 2009's post if you want to find out a bit more about him.

We don't do anything half as terrifying as bull running or bullfighting in Scotland. I suppose our most famous animal (if you can call it that) is the monster that lives in Loch Ness. She/he's called Nessy. Can you see the creature in this picture of the loch?

Let's have a look at the language of your last posting, and in particular articles, third form base verbs and the gender of nouns.

Articles
There are some words in English that we don't usually use articles (that's a, an or the) before, for example, meals or seasons. Look at these two sentences from your last posting and decide which one is correct and which one is wrong. Then, can you change the wrong one and re-write it correctly?

1. ... a perfect excuse to have a dinner.
2. In summer ... all villages have festivals.

Present perfect
We looked at the present perfect in the last posting and I'm delighted to see that you used it well in this posting when you were talking about times when the bull might not be killed at the end of bullfight. You were talking about all the fights from the past, up to and including now, so it was the perfect time to use the present perfect!

Now, the next challenge is to form the tense correctly. As I'm sure you know the present perfect uses has or have + the past particle (or the third form of the verb) - written, walked, seen. And it's the third form of your verbs I'd like to look at here:

Can you see what's wrong with both the bolded third form verbs in this sentence?

3. ... the bull has showed an exceptional performance and being brave

Gender
In lots of ways English (note the capital letter there) is quite a complicated language, but in one respect anyway it's much easier than lots of others (including Spanish) because inanimate nouns aren't given a gender - pretty much everything is referred to as it. There are a few exceptions. We often use she when we're talking about ships, countries or cars. For example:

She was a fine ship. They were pleased to be sailing on her.
Italy has said she will be increasing her exports this year.
How's the new car? She's running perfectly!

I noticed you used he a few times in your posting. What pronouns would be better here - his, her, its or theirs?

4. ...villages have ... festivals in honour to his patron saint.
5. In Tudela ... Santa Ana is his patron saint.

Finally let's look at the homework you did last time. It might get a bit complicated showing who's saying what here, so I'll try to indicate different turns with the words 'Emilio wrote:' and 'Nuala says:' I hope this doesn't overcomplicate things!

Emilio wrote: (BAD) I have been working for five years in the University of Navarra.
(CORRECTED) I worked at University of Navarra for 5 years.

Nuala says: Perfect. The working at the university happened before your current job, so it's finished in the past, so the past simple (I worked) is the right choice here. Well done!

Emilio wrote: (BAD) I got married almost 3 years ago
(CORRECTED) I got married to Mayte 3 years ago.

Nuala says: Actually the original sentence was correct. The day of your wedding was almost 3 year ago, so again, the past simple (I got married) is a good choice here.

The way you "corrected" the sentence is fine too, but there wasn't anything wrong with the original!

Emilio wrote: (BAD) I am working as a security guy in a Spanish start-up for almost three years.
(CORRECTED) I have been working in a Spanish start-up as a security guy since 2007.

Nuala says: Good correction here Emilio. You started working there in the past, and you're still working there now, so the present perfect (I have been working) is exactly what you need here.

Emilio wrote: (It is correct -I think-) We knew each other when we were 17 years old.

Nuala says: This one was wrong actually. If you use the past simple (we knew) it sounds like you don't know your wife now - and I hope that's not true! You could correct this sentence in two ways:

Using the past simple to show an action that's complete in the past:
We met each other 17 years ago.

Or to show a connection from the past to the present state of your relationship, you could use the present perfect:
We've known each other since we were 17 years old

Emilio wrote: (BAD) New York possibly was the city we have enjoyed.
(CORRECTED) New York was possibly the city we have enjoyed
You were right to try to correct this one, but you didn't quite manage to get it right.

Nuala says: The trip to New York is finished in the past, so this is the time to go for the simple, past simple:

New York possibly was the city we enjoyed [the most].

Just final point, when you're talking about the sentences you wrote above, we'd usually say 'wrong' or 'incorrect', rather than 'bad'.

That's all from me just now.

All the best,

Nuala

Vocabulary
wig - false hair
yawning - showing that you are tired or bored by opening your mouth and taking in air
upbeat - positive, optimistic
chased - If you are chased, someone or something runs after you and tries to catch you
loch - Scottish word for 'lake'
monster - a very frightening creature
complicated - not simple or straight forward or easy
respect - way, instance
inanimate - not living (a person is animate, a table is inanimate)
overcomplicate - (see complicated above) If you overcomplicate something you make it more complicated than it needs to be