Unit 7-lesson 4- Practice class 3

Welcome to the last practice class in this course. This time the topics are: affirmative and negative past tense, past tense questions and quantifiers. Take a look at the examples and get ready to answer the questions at the end.

Topic No.1: Affirmative and negative past tense.

Examples:
They went to the party.
I bought a blouse.
Chris cooked dinner.
To change these statements to negative past tense, we add did not before the main verb. And we write the main verb in present tense. Like this:

Subject + did not + present tense verb + complement.

Examples:

• They did not go to the party.
• I did not buy a blouse.
• Chris did not cook dinner.

A past tense statement uses a past tense verb. But when we change that statement to the negative form, we change the main verb to present tense.

The same thing happens with questions. If we use the same examples we have the following:

They went to the party.

Did they go to the party?

 I bought a blouse.

Did I buy a blouse?

 Chris cooked dinner.

Did Chris cook dinner?

 This is how we write questions in past tense:

Did + subject + present tense verb + complement

This kind of question can only give us a Yes or No answer. So we call these ‘Yes/No questions.”

The last part of this publication is quantifiers. We talked about them in previous lessons but here are a few examples:

She has many friends.

The refrigerator has a few tomatoes.
There isn’t any milk.
Do you want some coffee?

Remember that we use many and a few for countable nouns, like shoes, potatoes, tomatoes, cars and other objects that we can count.

And we use a little and much for non-countable nouns, like sugar, rice, air, water or wind. If we put non-countable nouns in container, they become countable.

Examples:

Many waters –incorrect.
Much water- correct.
A bottle of water- correct.
A few time- incorrect
Five hours-correct.

Some time- correct.
A little time- correct.

Notice how you can write with countables and non-countables. Check the examples and compare with the previous lessons if you want. This lesson is for practice only, so you will notice that explanations are short and there aren’t many examples.

Double check anything that you need and get ready for the questions.

Unit 7-lesson 3- Some food to go.

There are many topics in English that need special attention to learn them correctly. The use of quantifiers is one of them. We have to know the difference between countable nouns and non-countable nouns. An example of this is the use of some and any. And this is the topic for this lesson. In the class, we explain how to tell these apart. The following text will give you some tips to help you use them.

The words some and any are used for countable and uncountable nouns. In general, we could say that some means a few / a little and any means none in negative clauses or a few / a little in questions.

In general, we use something/anything and somebody/anybody in the same way as some/any.

Look at these examples:

• He needs some stamps.
• I must go. I have some homework to do.
• I’m thirsty. I want something to drink.
• I can see somebody coming.
• He doesn’t need any stamps.
• I don’t have any homework to do.
• I don’t want anything to drink.
• I can’t see anybody coming.
• Does he need any stamps?
• Do you have any homework to do?
• Do you want anything to drink?
• Can you see anybody coming?

We use any in a positive sentence when the real sense is negative.

• I refused to give them any money. (I did not give them any money)
• She finished the test without any difficulty. (she did not have any difficulty)

Sometimes we use some in a question, when we expect a positive YES answer. (We could say that it is not a real question, because we think we know the answer already.)

• Would you like some more tea?
• Could I have some sugar, please?

So, how do you tell countable nouns from non-countable nouns?

Countable nouns are things you can count, like oranges, grapes, tomatoes, toys, people and so on. And non-countable nouns are things you can’t count, like water, wind, time and money.
To count water, for example, we need a container, like a glass, a jar or a cup. So you can count cups of water or jars of water.

Time is non-countable, but you can count minutes, hours or days.

Keep this in mind and pay close attention to the topics discussed in this lesson.

Part of this was taken from http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-some-any.htm

Unit 7- lesson 2 – The story of my life.

This time we focus on a subject that could be complicated: the zero article. Most of us use it everyday but we don’t know that we are doing it. It is used a lot in English. It is easy to use, but sometimes it is difficult to learn.

With this in mind, please read the following text so you can learn the basics about the zero article.

There are lots of rules about the use of articles. Here we’ll concentrate on 3 golden rules. Most mistakes with articles are made through breaking one of these rules.

1. When we say what people’s jobs are, we use a/an

• She’s an architect.
• He’s a doctor.
• My grandfather was a teacher.

2. Singular, countable nouns always have an article – a/an or the – or another determiner (my, your, this, that etc.)
Remember that we use the indefinite article – a/an – when we talk about something that is not definite.

• I saw a good film yesterday. –We don’t know which film.
• There’s a man at the door. -We don’t know who the man is.
• Do you want a drink? -It’s not a particular drink.

… and we use the definite article – the – when we talk about something more certain.

• I’m going to take the dog for a walk. -The dog is a pet – it’s not just any dog.
• Have you seen the car key? -Speaker and listener know which car. It’s not just any car.
• They live in the house opposite ours. -There’s only one house opposite. It’s not any house.

1. When we talk about things in general we use a plural noun or an uncountable noun with no article.

• Birds eat worms. -NOT The birds eat the worms.
• Water flows downhill.
• Kangaroos live in Australia.

BUT We went to the zoo and saw the kangaroos. These are particular kangaroos – not kangaroos in general.
There are many other rules about articles but remembering these 3 golden rules will reduce the number of mistakes you make.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand these completely at first. It is good to check other websites to learn tips and recommendations. If you pay close attention to tv shows, you will notice they use the zero article all the time. So keep this in mind and get ready for the lesson.

This information was adapted from

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-reference/articles-1

 

Unit 7-lesson 1 – How do I get there?

Hello, again. In this lesson we will learn how to give directions. When we visit a different city or go on vacations, it’s common to ask for directions. It is something that happens often so it’s important that you have an idea about how to do this.

Please watch the next video, which shows some examples about giving directions.

What do you think? You will see that giving directions is easy. First, learn the vocabulary and phrases used to talk about where a place is, and then you can give directions without any trouble at all. If you want to, you can see the video again, before answering the questions.
When you are done, please continue with the lesson. Good luck!