Practical tips 1

1) THERE IS/THERE ARE

FORMS:
Affirmative: There is (There's)/ There are
Negative: There is not (There isn't) / There are not (There aren't)

RULES:

THERE IS for singular nouns (one item) --- There is a book on the table
THERE IS for non-count nouns --- There is milk in the fridge
THERE ARE for plural nouns (many items)--- There are three books on the table

ACTIVITIES:
- English Zone
- Inglés mundial
- A4ESL


2) IRREGULAR PLURALS (most common)

RULES:

a) Ends with -fe --- Change f to v then add -s knife - knives
b) Ends with -f --- Change f to v then add -es wolf - wolves
c) Ends with -o --- Add -es potato - potatoes
d) Change the vowel or change the word or add a different ending
man - men---------- foot - feet
child - children --------- person - people
tooth - teeth ----------- mouse - mice
e) No change sheep - sheep

ACTIVITIES:
- ELD Study Zone
- Many Things--games, flash required: plural1 and plural2.
- ESL Partyland

The bluest eyes

PAUL NEWMAN, the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history dies aged 83 after long battle with cancer.

"The last of the greats" (Marlon Brando and James Dean) was born in Ohio in 1925.His first movie was The Silver Chalice, followed by Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, starring Liz Taylor. Diagnosed with lung cancer, Newman recently told his family he wish to die at home.

We´ll miss those eyes that conquered Hollywood.

Phonetics Focus

The importance of phonetics in English learning is clear when we open any dictionary and we see those signs after the word. Phonetics helps us with the correct pronunciation of any word, so let's see some interesting resources.

Phonetics Focus is a fantastic site with lots of fun resources to help students improve their pronunciation: charts, flashcards, interactive quizzes, hangman, tests...

Cambridge English dictionaries with phonetics.

Phonetics by Pedro Felipe de la Iglesia.

English trailers (for Pepa)

English Trailers

Here you are, a website for studying English using trailers. You can find 107 trailers with activities: warm-up, summary, cloze, script, quiz, links and forum. Hope you find it useful and funny.

English around the world

Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages, depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects." Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined. There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.
The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million), United Kingdom (58 million), Canada (18.2 million), Australia (15.5 million), Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million). Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. Following India is the People's Republic of China. (Source: wikipedia)

QUESTIONS:
1. Can you name 5 varieties of English?
2. Is English used on all five continents? Name one country in each continent.
3. What's the difference between colour and color?
4. What's the difference between autumn and fall?
5. According to Business Week, who is winning the race?

LINKS:
Wikipedia
5 Minute English: English around the world
E.L. Easton
English hilfen
Business Week

The last lesson?

Irregular verbs (podcast)

Try listening to this podcast to learn irregular verbs:

Irregular verbs 1
Irregular verbs 2

Irregular verbs 3

Irregular verbs 4

You can download the mp3 files: Manythings: Irregular verbs

(Credit: Illustration /

Jonathan Saragosti)

Love letter

This is a love letter from a boy to a girl.However, the girl's father does not like him and want them to stop their relationship,and so the boy wrote this letter to the girl.He knows that the girl's father will definitely read this letter:

1 "The great love that I have for you
2 is gone, and I find my dislike for you
3 grows every day. When I see you,
4 I do not even like your face;
5 the one thing that I want to do is to
6 look at other girls. I never wanted to
7 marry you. Our last conversation
8 was very boring and has not
9 made me look forward to seeing you again.
10 You think only of yourself.
11 If we were married, I know that I would find
12 life very difficult, and I would have no
13 pleasure in living with you. I have a heart
14 to give, but it is not something that
15 I want to give to you. No one is more
16 foolish and selfish than you, and you are not
17 able to care for me and help me.
18 I sincerely want you to understand that
19 I speak the truth. You will do me a favor
20 if you think this is the end. Do not try
21 to answer this. Your letters are full of
22 things that do not interest me. You have no
23 true love for me. Good-bye! Believe me,
24 I do not care for you. Please do not think that
25 I am still your boyfriend.

Before handing over the letter to the girl, the boy told the girl to "READ BETWEEN THE LINES". Read it again but read lines 1.3.5.7.9.11.13.

Love is in the air...

The Alphabet

Ok, what about reviewing the English alphabet? Are you ready? Start singing!

All about me

Hi, my name is Sara and I'm going to be your English teacher. The end of summer can make you feel a bit sad with a new school year beginning, but the sun is still shining out there, so let's have fun. Just to start, let's talk about likes and dislikes.

Did you have a look to my collage? My favourite singer is Robbie Williams, I adore his song Feel, and yes, I use it as a ringtone for my mobile phone. I like Celtic music and of course, my favourite group is The Corrs.

I love London and the Big Ben and I'm so fond of this city that I like using British symbols in my crafts with felt.

I like sports, specially football and Formula One. I support Recre and Alonso.

What about you? Can you talk about your favourite singer, TV programme or film?

School year 2008/2009

I.E.S. Fuente Juncal (Aljaraque)

Welcome to a new school year! Greetings, students! I hope everyone had a great summer. It's a big year ahead and we've got lots of things to do. I hope you have fun learning English. I´m here to help you so feel free to contact me or the English Department with any concerns or questions you may have regarding English lessons. Remember, WE CAN!!