January 2010
From أغر؟´«أ½ Learning English
Thanks so much to all our teacher and student bloggers for their fantastic contributions in December 2009. It was lovely to catch up with all your news, views and photos!
All the best for 2010!
The أغر؟´«أ½ Learning English team
posted on Thursday, 07 January 2010 | comment on this post
New Year's resolutions
Hi Enrico,
Happy New Year to you! It looks like you've started January off the way so many people plan to but don't actually get round to doing! I salute you for your endeavours! I'm sure lots of people reading your blog are very impressed by your running schedule.
It's so cold here in London just now I can't imagine many people running the distances you run, or maybe I'm just a wimp!
My way of keeping in shape is to ride my bike to work most days. But since the recent cold snap started, I have to admit I haven't ridden my bike once! Have you got any advice to get me back on it?
Now, let's have a look at your recent blog. I'd like to concentrate on just a couple of areas today – formal and informal language, and noun and adjective agreement.
There are a few times you used quite formal language and in a blog, the tone is usually informal. I think a few of the terms you used were from Italian and although your meaning is clear, I think we could improve on the word choice. I want to zoom in on the word localized and the symbol (+/-) , and so I hope you don't mind I've changed a few other words in the sentence so that we don't get distracted by them.
The town is localized (+/- )18 km from where I live in Rome.
Localized is a very formal word in English (as is the word situated). It would be more natural for us just to use the verb to be, and to say:
The town is 18 km from where I live.
In that sentence you also use the symbol (+/-) which is easy to understand but you could also use the word approximately (rather formal) or the more informal, about.
So you could write your original sentence like this:
The town is about 18 kms from where I live.
The word guys is very informal but we don't usually use it to talk about our children. It's a word we tend to use to talk about our friends or colleagues. To talk about our children, we tend to use boys (if they are young) or sons (to talk about either young or old male children). So instead of saying:
We have 2 guys and a baby.
You could say:
We have 2 sons and a daughter.
or
We have 2 boys and a girl.
or
We have 2 younger boys and a baby girl.
In English, we don't have to make adjectives plural when we use them with plural nouns. Dear is an adjective and friend is a noun. So instead of saying dears friends you should say dear friends.
Can you see what's wrong here?
I've known other runners friends.
Thanks for sharing all your lovely photos with us. Looking forward to hearing from you again.
Best wishes,
Nuala
Vocabulary
salute – if you salute someone you think they are doing something very brave or difficult
endeavours – tasks or things that are difficult or dangerous to do
plan – prepare or make arrangements to do things in the future
get round to doing – plan to do something (which you might not want to do because it's difficult or boring)
impressed – amazed
a wimp – a person who isn't very brave
cold snap – short period of cold weather
zoom in on – concentrate on, give full attention to
we don't get distracted by them – we don't give them our full attention (when we should be looking at something, here, the formal/informal language in the sentence)
colleagues – people we work with
posted on Thursday, 07 January 2010 | comment on this post
The buzz of running
Hi Enrico,
Wow! You guys train hard! I'm so impressed with your friend Ernesto for running 27 marathons! He must be incredibly fit! How many marathons have you run? Are you getting anywhere close to Ernesto's 27?
I've run four marathons (, , and ) back between 2000 and 2003.
I stopped running a few years ago when I injured my knee and although I like biking, I do still miss the buzz of running.
Not matter how long or far I ran I always found the first five or siz kilometres really hard. What part of your training runs do you find hard – the beginning, the middle or the end? I used to find that once I'd got into the swing of a training run, I could run for hours, but those first 30 minutes were always the killer for me.
I was never a particularly fast runner but what I liked most about running was being out and about in the world. I used to run along an old canal and loved the way my mind would just float above the running and I'd start to have really creative and interesting thoughts (well, they were interesting to me!). What is it about running that you like the best? What do you particularly like about running?
I love all the pictures you post. It makes me remember all those long weekend runs when I was in training. And that cup of coffee at the end! I bet that tastes good!
I though we'd look at a couple of aspects of your grammar from your posts: 1) the present simple and 2) keeping your writing in the same tense.
In English we can use the present simple (I run, she/he/it runs, we/they/you run) to talk about habits, things we do regularly or routines. Your Sunday training runs fall into this category because it's something you do regularly, so this is the perfect time to use the present simple. For example, you said:
1) I'm checking my runner shoes
2) We are planning 01:00 hour of basic training
3) We joking all the time
But since you do these things almost every Sunday, it would be better to say:
1) I check my running shoes
2) We plan an hour of basic training
3) Can you figure out what you should say for this one?
In English we usually keep our writing in the same tense in one paragraph unless there's a reason to change tenses. We can move from the past simple to the past perfect to show that one action happened before another one. For example, I was on the bus (past simple) when I realised (past simple) that I had left my umbrella (past perfect) at home. But in general, if we start in one tense, we usually stick with it in one paragraph. Let's look at the verbs one of your paragraphs:
We run in the countryside. Alberto is in front of me with a good pace. Then I took a photo of some amateur cyclists we come across by chance.
There are two past simple verbs and two present simple verbs. Since you're talking about what happened last week, the past simple tense would be better for all of your verbs. Can you see how you could improve this paragraph now?
Looking forward to hearing from you again soon.
All the best,
Nuala
Vocabulary
fit – someone who is healthy and who does a lot of exercising regularly
the buzz – the exciting or good feeling
got into the swing of – got used to something
the killer – the most difficult part of something
out and about – outside (not inside in your house)
stick with it – continue with it, don't change from it
posted on Tuesday, 12 January 2010 | comment on this post
Music to run to
Hi Enrico,
Thanks for your latest posting. It was really interesting hearing about the kind of music you like. Music is so personal, isn't it? Do you find running with music makes you bond with certain tracks? Do you make special music mixes for races? I know I did, and to this day, there are some songs that can immediately take me back to a particular run or race whenever I hear them.
When I ran the Dublin marathon it was so long ago that I was using a little Walkman tape recorder to listen to my special marathon mix. As I told you before, I was quite a slow runner so I even managed to run out of batteries during the marathon so I had to stop and go into a little shop to buy some more. I remember there was a young lad in the shop who started making fun of my being in the shop (with my running number on – clearly in the marathon). He said in a really loud voice for everyone to hear 'Oi! This woman's cheating! She's stopped for a rest in here. She's not allowed to do that, so she's not!' I tell you, I paid for those batteries and got out of that shop as fast as I could! I was mortified!
But I still had a great time on that marathon and can remember as clear as day the finishing line coming into sight with Kirsty MacColl blasting in my ears. I just flew along on the last couple of minutes of the race, thanks to Kirsty!
Let us know what your inspirational running tracks are Enrico.
Today I thought we'd look at a few areas – spelling and apostrophes to show possession (that something belongs to someone).
Here are some words that you didn't spell correctly. I think a few of them might just have been a slip when you were typing, but can you have a look at them and see if you can correct them?
hearthquake
esperience
reggaee
preferit
rithm
syntethizer
wiev
studing (English)
In English, we use an apostrophe before the s to show that something belongs to a person (or animal). For example, if you want to talk about one girl who has one book, you can write:
The girl's book
One student who has one newspaper:
The student's newspaper
One dog with a bone:
The dog's bone.
If you put the apostrophe after the s it shows that something belongs to more than one person (or animal). For example, if you want to talk about three girls and their books, you can write:
The girls' books.
Two students sharing one newspaper:
The students' newspaper.
Fours dogs and their bones
The dogs' bones.
Can you see how you could improve this phrase from your last posting?
The Brazilian godmother of my daughter.
Apostrophes are often difficult for lots of students because there is no equivalent in their own language (in Italian you'd say the godmother of my daughter, wouldn't you Enrico?) So don't worry, you're not alone with finding this area of English difficult!
There is one problem you should be aware of after you've mastered the possessive apostrophe, and that's that you don't overuse it. Usually if the thing that is owned is an object, a piece of furniture or a building, we don't use an apostrophe. Here are a few example:
We write:
The computer keyboard
The back of the chair
The cinema entrance
not
The computer's keyboard
The chair's back
The cinema's entrance
If you like, here's a little task for you to do which you can post with your next blog. Have a look at these sentences and decide if they are correct or wrong. If they're correct, just write 'correct' next to the number. If they're wrong, re-write them correctly.
1. The girls shoes (2 girls, each with a pair of shoes)
2. The tourist's passports (3 tourists, each tourist has a passport)
3. The boy's pens (1 boy with 5 pens)
4. The book's cover
5. The runner's numbers (25 runners, each with a number)
6. The uncle of my friend
7. The drivers' cars (4 drivers, each with a car)
8. The doctors surgery (1 doctor with her surgery)
9. My kitchen sink
10. The babys toys (one baby with a lot of toys)
Vocabulary
personal - relating or belonging to a single person rather than to a group or an organization
mixes – mixtures, varieties of
bond with– have a close connection with
tracks – songs on a CD or record
to this day – even though it was a long time ago
run out of– If you run out of something you have no more of it left (here, my batteries no longer worked, there was no power left in them)
lad – young man
mortified – very embarrassed
remember as clear as day – remember very clearly
blasting - making a very loud noise (here, the music was playing very loudly)
possession - something you own
a slip – a mistake
you've mastered – you are able to do something very effectively
overuse – use too much
posted on Wednesday, 20 January 2010 | comment on this post
The 64 million dollar question
Hi Enrico,
Thanks for your posting. You've really given us food for thought with your jackpot question.
I think most of us would agree with you, your wife and your running chums that a nice house, a long holiday and living the life of Reilly would suit us all just fine!
I must admit I have a slightly different reaction to the question 'What would you do if you won the lottery?' but that's because I spent so many years as an English language teacher. You see there's a particular part of English grammar which most EFL teachers spend a long time teaching – it's called 'the conditional'. There are lots of different types of conditionals but the one I'm talking about here is called 'the second conditional'. We use to talk about things that are unlikely (but possible) to happen and to talk about what we would do if that unlikely thing actually happened. So from a teaching point of view, talking about wining the lottery is a perfect way to get students to practise that particular conditional.
You make the second conditional with:
If + subject + past simple, subject + would + base verb
If I won the jackpot, I would buy a big house.
If he won the lottery, he'd go on a round-the-world cruise
If we won all that money, we would invest it.
Here are some other classic EFL second conditional questions. What are your answers to these ones Enrico?
What would you do if you met someone famous?
If you ruled the world, what new laws would you introduce?
If you saw a snake / a spider/ a rat / an animal you were afraid of, what would you do?
I though we'd look at a few sayings or proverbs that you mentioned in your blog. Before we do though I should point out that when we introduce a saying or proverb we often say something like this:
As they say
As the (old) saying goes
It is said
Although I completely understood what you meant here:
Money don’t give you happiness but it calm your nerves
you could make it sound more natural in English by saying:
As the saying goes, money can't buy you happiness
We don't really have an equivalent to the second half of your saying but Callum, in the Learning English office, suggested:
As they say, money can't buy you happiness but it can make your misery comfortable
I'm not sure I really understand what your second proverb was:
Your attention by money and phisical pains are the same , you keeps care of both of them
I thought perhaps you meant:
Money is like an injury, you have to look after it.
Is that right? Let us know.
And finally, I know you've stopped blogging about running but I was thinking of you at the weekend and I dug out a couple of old marathon pictures. Here I am crossing the finishing line in Dublin
And here's me at the end of the Medoc marathon (with my medal round my neck) . That one was through the vineyards of Bordeaux and each vineyard we ran through offered us runners a small glass of wine to enjoy. When you finished the marathon you got a lovely bottle of French wine too. So the sign in this photo says 'The longest marathon in the world' – it wasn't any longer in length than any other marathon, it's just that after you drink all that wine, it seems like the longest marathon in the world! The most enjoyable for sure, but the longest too!
Vocabulary
food for thought – serious ideas or topics for us to think about
chums - (informal) friends
living the life of Reilly – having a very easy life without any difficult things to do
suit us all just fine – be perfect for each of us
EFL – (short for) English as a foreign language
sayings (or proverbs) - well-known and wise statements, which often have a meaning that is different from the simple meanings of the words they contain
dug out - found something, after looking for it for a long time
vineyards – fields where grapes are grown to make wine
posted on Wednesday, 27 January 2010 | comment on this post
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