grammar

Lesson of the day

28 novembre 2017 — Lascia un commento

KEY WORDS TRANSFORMATION C1/C2

In these exercises, you need to take the information in the first sentence and re-write it, using the word in bold so that the second sentence has exactly the same meaning. You cannot change the word in bold in ANY way. You can use a minimum of THREE and a maximum of SIX words for each space.

  1. None of the phones were left when we got to the shop.
    time
    the shop, all the phones had been sold.
  2. I didn’t know it was Carl until he took off his hat.
    when
    Only                                                         his hat did I recognise Carl.
  3. Don’t waste your time asking Bryan to come with us.
    worth
    It’s                                                                                    to come with us.
  4. Perhaps John heard the story from Pippa.
    have
    Pippa might                                                story.
  5. Until they fire me as manager here, I’ll run the company my way.
    long
    the boss, I’ll run the company my way.
  6. The school’s management are investigating allegations of teacher brutality.
    into
    Allegations of teacher brutality                                             the school’s management.
  7. It’s not possible that you saw Mary last night, she was with us!
    have
    You                                                                                             last night, she was with us!
  8. The beach was fun even though it was too cold.
    fact
    too cold, the beach was fun.
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Phrasal Verbs of the day 

7 novembre 2017 — Lascia un commento

COLLOCATIONS. Learn phrasal verbs with nouns that go with them. È sempre piu sempilce imparare phrasal verbs  quandary vengono spiegati in un contesto. 

Ma cosa sono esattamente i Phrasal Verbs ? Verbs that consist of a verb and a particle. Particles are small words which you already know as prepositions or adverbs. Some of the most common : ABOUT (A)ROUND AT. AWAY BACK. DOWN  FOR  IN  INTO  OFF ON  OUT  OVER  THROUGH  TO  UP

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Siamese Twins

3 settembre 2017 — Lascia un commento

“Fish & Chips” “Safe and Sound” “Fro and To” … e se dicessimo “Chips & Fish”? Oppure “Sound and Safe”? In Inglese ci sono parole che vengono chiamate “Siamese Twins” proprio perché vengono usate in coppia e con un ordine prestabilito anche se ,come nel caso di “Fish & Chips”, non c è apparentemente nessuna ragione precisa. Ma si sa c è sempre una logica. Check this out :

1. In logical order. As we might expect, there is a logic to a lot of these collocations. Examples include first and second (and other number sequences), cause and effect, old and new, crime and punishment, (mind your) Ps and Qs.

2. The semantically bigger or better thing comes first: fish and chips, bacon and eggs, meat and vegetables. Examples of the better thing first include: good and bad, highs and lows, dos and don’ts, pros and cons. This pattern can sometimes seem to be the opposite of the first rule, e.g. a higher number is bigger than a smaller one, but this rule is not applied to words which can be put in a logical sequence.

3. Longest last: The longer (or “heavier” to pronounce) word goes last. There are a lot of collocations which seem to obey this rule. Examples include salt and pepper, cloak and dagger, cause and effect, men and women, ladies and gentlemen, cream and sugar. This rule seems to take lower priority than the other rules and often overlaps with them. It may arise from the need to put more complicated words or ideas after simpler ones.

4. Male often goes before female, e.g. men and women, he and she, his and hers, Mr and Mrs, brothers and sisters, Dear Sir or Madam. There are exceptions, e.g. ladies and gentlemen, (which follows the longest last rule) mum and dad and aunt and uncle.

5. Some of the Siamese twins follow rules similar to those of adjective order. E.g. we say tall and thin just like we say “a tall thin man” rather than “thin tall man”.

Del resto anche in Italiano : “Romeo & Giulietta” ” Adamo & Eva” “Signore & Signori”

L ordine delle “Siamese Twins” varia anche se spesso lingue differenti seguono la stessa logica :bigger/better first. Sembra invece variare l ordine maschile / femminile ….