UNIT 1 Objectives: a. Students will be albe to recognize and use the present tenses, both simple and continuous. b. Students will be able to read and speak on a given subject (level elementary). c. Students will be able to write simple, informal lettes. GRAMMAR Present Tense A....
STATIVE VERBS AND COLLOCATION STATIVE VERBS A. Not normally used in the Continuous – they describe states that stay the same rather than actions or events that change. The most common stative verb is BE. Others include: 1. emotional states (love, doubt, care) and senses (smell): I...
VERBS WE COMMONLY USE IN THE PASSIVE 1. verbs without an agent – we use some verbs more often in the passive than in the active because the agent is either unknown or obvious, or not important to what we want to say: I was born in Italy. My neighbour’s been arrested! She was fined...
POSSIBILITY, PROBABILITY AND CERTAINTY A. Likelihood – aside from modals, we can use a number of words and phrases to say how likely it is something that will happen. Some examples: 1. verbs and verbal phrases: I bet you never write to her. I’d stake my life on his honesty. I don’t...
FREQUENCY As well as using modal verbs, we can express frequency in many ways. A. Adverbs and adverbial phrases. 1. we most commonly express the idea of “how often” with adverbs of frequency: I rarely / seldom go into the centre of town if I can help it. John regularly / normally...
METAPHOR A metaphor is a combination of vocabulary items we use to express a particular feeling or encourage imagination, e.g.: her sunny smile, have a big head, purr with delight, a sun-drenched beach, pull strings. 1. Compound adjectives and nouns as metaphors – some compounds are...
EXPRESSING PURPOSE AND EFFECT Apart from linking clauses, we can express purpose and result in other ways. A. Purpose and intention – we can use vocabulary items with meanings related to purpose and intention in different parts of speech. 1. we often express purpose and intention...
DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES 1. Collocation – we can use a number of adjective / noun or adverb / verb collocations to say how different or similar people or things are. Other adjectives may have a similar meaning, but we can’t use them because they don’t collocate (see Lesson 1):...
SINGULAR, PLURAL, UNCOUNTABLE: COMMON PHRASES A. Countable and uncountable – in several common phrases nouns that are commonly countable are used as uncountable, and vice versa: 1. countable nouns used uncountably: We went on foot. He’ll never set foot in my house again. We don’t...
AMOUNT AND EXTENT A. Extent and degree – many adjectives and phrases collocate with extent and degree: To some extent / degree she is right. 1. Here are some more examples: to a lesser / greater / large / small / great / considerable / marked degree / extent 2. We use extent in...
NOUNS FROM PHRASAL VERBS LACK, SHORTAGE AND EXCESS NOUNS FROM PHRASAL VERBS A. Particle first or second? 1. nouns derived from phrasal verbs or preposition as the first part of the word, sometimes the second. The stress is on the first syllable whichever form the word takes. When...
SUBSTITUTING ONE PHRASE FOR ANOTHER INTENSIFYING AND EMPHASISING SUBSTITUTING ONE PHRASE FOR ANOTHER We can use words or phrases to replace others with more or less the same meaning. We may use one phrase rather than another because it is shorter, more precise or involves a change of...
COMMUNICATING QUOTING, REPORTING AND INTERPRETING A. Referring directly to other people’s words – we can use a number of phrases or structures to refer to what other people have said or written: According to the Chancellor, a tax increase is unavoidable. In the words of Shakespeare,...
DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS AND PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES EXPRESSING KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF DEPENDENT PREPOSITIONS AND PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES A. Verb + preposition. 1. as well as verbs of movement and place followed by prepositional phrases, we can use verb + preposition combinations: The film...
COMPETITION, OPPOSITION, DISAGREEMENT STARTING AND ENDING; CREATING AND DESTROYING COMPETITION, OPPOSITION, DISAGREEMENT 1. Collocation – a number of verbs and adjectives collocate with competition and opposition: We encountered fierce competition in the opening stages of the...