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Showing posts from February, 2011

I WISH I COULD...

Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true. Or as The Dalai Lama said "Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck". Other famous quotes about this are "If a man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles" by Benjamin Franklin, or "When the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers" by Oscar Wilde. Anyway, let's forget about philosophical issues and focus on language learning, shall we? May 12th 2009 post on wishes and regrets Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Exercise 3 BBC Learning English listening: Three wishes BBC Learning English, The Flatmates episode 67: Wish (language point and quiz too!!!) BBC Learning English, The Flatmates episode 177: Third conditional

VALENTINE'S DAY

Valentine's Day History and things Videos on the history of VD and the science of love Valentine's Day crafts and recipes Valentine's Day crossword Valentine's Day quiz Every Breath You Take by The Police

YOU SHOULD'VE...

More practice about modal verbs in the past? You should've said no by Taylor Swift (thanks, Silvia, for the tip) Modal verbs online exercises, click here . Click here , if you want to read the post I wrote about the song 'Nothing suits me like suit ' from the TV series How I met your mother last year. You'll be able to listen to the song again while reading the lyrics at the same time.

BRITISH ACCENTS

Read this: British or English article Now, here you have a website where you can listen to people with different accents. Have fun! Accents What else? Well, Recently, I've watched a TV series called Gavin and Stacey , you might have heard about it. Anyway, it is about a nice boy from Essex (England) and a sweet girl from Barry (Wales) who fell in love and got married. Now their families and friends have to deal with this new situation and I assure you the consequences of this new life for all of them are hilarious. Besides, you can really notice the difference between English and Welsh accents and expressions. For example, Nessa, Stacey's friend, always says "what's ocurring?" instead of "what's the matter?". Listening exercise: South East Wales voices Reading exercise: what's occurring with Ruth Jones (Nessa)? The awkward breakfast: Stacey's uncle makes fun of American accent: Gavin's friends go to Barry: nobody speaks Welsh here, you sl

CONFUSING VERBS

In this post you are going to find a bit of everything, such as: REPORTING VERBS: 31st January, 2010 post on special reporting verbs, click here . CONFUSING VERBS EXERCISES: look/see/watch I look/see/watch II remember/remind lend/borrow let/leave do/make I do/make II take/bring talk/speak Confusing verbs More confusing verbs Pairs of confusing verbs: pdf files here and here BBC quiznet (confusing verbs) BBC quiznet (expressions with take ) Well, you know there are many others such as threat and warn. This morning we had a bit of a problem telling one from the other, but remember, a threat is a warning that something unpleasant is imminent while a warning is a message informing of danger. FEELING ANGRY: BBC quiznet TALKING ABOUT FILMS: BBC quiznet (collocations) REASON AND RESULT: BBC quiznet (cause and effect) BBC quiznet (reason and result) COMMON ENGLISH MISTAKES BBC quiznet