English tenses

 Language and functions  

Comprender las diferencias entre los tiempos gramaticales puede ser algo confuso para algunos estudiantes, para hacerlo más fácil y sencillo usaremos como referente 'The Timeline' (La línea del tiempo)


     |-----------------------------o------------------------------>
   Past                              Present                            Future
                                         NOW


El tiempo gramatical nos permite comprender cuando algo sucedió, es decir, si la acción túvo lugar en el pasado, tiene lugar en el presente o tendrá lugar en el futuro.
La palabra 'tense' en Inglés, simplemente se refiere a el lugar que ocupa algo descrito en el tiempo, normalmente esto es una acción. El tiempo en Inglés se usa para comparar la posición de una acción con relación a otros eventos o acciones; por lo tanto, para realizar la ubicación y comparación de las acciones se necesita un punto de referencia, y ese punto de referencia es el TIEMPO PRESENTE, (el ahora).


     |--------------------------o----------------------|----->
   actions                      actions                  actions
from the past           at the present         in the future

- It was                         - It is                    - It will
- I was                          - I am                   - I will
- They were                 - They are             - They will
- He was                      - He is                   - He will
- She was                     - She is                 - She will

- It was raining            - It is raining         - It will rain tomorrow
- I was tired                 - I am tired           - I will work tomorrow
- They were here         - They are here     - They will be here tonight
- He was busy             - He is busy           - He will see you on Friday
- She was angry          - She is awake       - She will call you tomorrow

Determiners: A, An or The?

  Language and functions  

When do we say "the dog" and when do we say "a dog"? (On this page we talk only about singular, countable nouns.)

The and A/An are called "articles". We divide them into "definite" and "indefinite" like this:

Articles
Definite	Indefinite
The	A, An

We use "definite" to mean sure, certain. "Definite" is particular.

We use "indefinite" to mean not sure, not certain. "Indefinite" is general.

When we are talking about one thing in particular, we use the. When we are talking about one thing in general, we use a or an.

Think of the sky at night. In the sky there is 1 moon and millions of stars. So normally we could say: 

• I saw the moon last night.
• I saw a star last night.  

Look at these examples:

The	A, An
The capital of France is Paris. I have found the book that I lost. Have you cleaned the car? There are six eggs in the fridge. Please switch off the TV when you finish.	I was born in a town. John had an omelette for lunch. James Bond ordered a drink. We want to buy an umbrella. Have you got a pen?

Of course, often we can use The or A/An for the same word. It depends on the situation. Look at these examples:

• We want to buy an umbrella. (Any umbrella, not a particular umbrella.)
• Where is the umbrella? (We already have an umbrella. We are looking for our umbrella, a particular umbrella.)

This little story should help you understand the difference between The and A, An:

• A man and a woman were walking in Oxford Street. The woman saw a dress that she liked in a shop. She asked the man if he could buy the dress for her. He said: "Do you think the shop will accept a cheque? I don't have a credit card."

Countable and uncountable nouns

 Language and functions  

En esta lección vamos a aprender la diferencia entre sustantivos contables (countable nouns) y sustantivos no contables (uncountable nouns).

1.  Countable Nouns 

Son sustantivos que se pueden contar, en general usan un artículo indefinido (A, AN) o el artículo definido (THE), también puede llevar otras palabras delante (my, yours, his, her, their, that, this).
Una característica importante de los sustantivos contables es que se pueden escribir en singular o en plural.

Examples:

ball  (pelota) es contable; por tanto, podemos decir: 

·         a ball  (una pelota)

·         one ball   (una pelota)

·         two balls   (dos pelotas)

·         three balls   (tres pelotas)

·         her ball   (su pelota)

·         that ball   (esa pelota)

2.  Uncountable Nouns

Son sustantivos que no se pueden contar; es decir, no se pueden dividir en elementos separados. Nunca usamos los artículos indefinidos (A, An) con sustantivos no contables, pero si podemos usar (SOME o ANY).Generalmente tratamos a los sustantivos no contables como sustantivos en singular; esto quiere decir que usamos un verbo en singular para referirnos a ellos.

Examples:

Video: Head, Shoulders, Knees and toes

 Children  

We share you an excelent video about a very popular song for children.

Telling the time

 Language and functions  

TELLING THE TIME

1.     After the hour we use past and before the hour we use to
 

3: 05      five past three                                 3: 35         twenty-five to four
3: 10      ten past three                                  3: 40         twenty to four

3: 15      quarter past three                           3: 45         quarter to four

3: 20      twenty past three                            3: 50         ten to four

3: 25      twenty-five past three                     3: 55         five to four

3: 30      half past three                                 3: 00         three o'clock

 

2.     We can also say :

      3: 10      three  ten                                           3: 35         three  thirty-five

and etc...

 

REMEMBER AT                                         ON                                               IN at ten o'clock                       on Sunday                              in the morning at night                                                                                  in the afternoon at the weekend                                                                    in the evening

Present Simple: He, She, It

 Grammar pills  

A. Present simple: positive and negative (he, she and it)

1.     In the  he/ she/ it positive form of the Present simple, we add 's' to the verb.

He loves chocolate.               She hates dogs.                   It opens at five o'clock.

The spelling rules for he, she, and it:

Verb	Rule
La mayoría de verbos	se agrega s	Beth comes from the USA. Paul wants a new car.
Verbos que terminan en consonante + y	se cambia la y por ies	This airline flies to Slovenia.
Verbos que terminan en: ch, sh, s, x, z	se agrega es	Andrew watches a lot of videos. Fran finishes work at six.
do - go	se agrega es	My manager goes home at eleven! Pat does all the housework.
have	has	He has breakfast at seven.

2.     We form the negative with doesn't (= does + not) + verb.

He doesn't eat meat.            NOT: He doesn't eats.

She doesn't like coffee.        It doesn't open on Sunday.

Positive form	he/she/it	likes dogs. loves chocolates.
Negative form	he/she/it	doesn't like (= does not like) cats. doesn't eat (= does not eat) fish.

B. Present simple: questions and short answers (he, she and it)

1.     We form he / she / it Present simple questions with does + verb.

Does he live with his parents?   NOT: Does he lives?

Does she like London?        Does it open late?

Question form	Does	he she it		live  with you? rain a lot in Brazil?
Short answers	Yes, he/she/it     + No, he/she/it       +		does. doesn't.