A man walked into a bar in Texas didn't he...

We looked at the difference between these QUESTIONS (to get some information) and INVITATION TAGS (to initiate conversation) before trying to finish a long list of statements with appropriate tags:

- Is it cold today?
- Ooh it’s cold today isn’t it.

- Are these chips delicious?
- These chips are delicious aren’t they.

- It’s typical isn’t it. The trains are always late when you’re in a hurry.
- Is it typical that the trains are always late when you’re in a hurry?

- The reading test was difficult wasn’t it.
- Was the reading test difficult?

- Is Bandar lovely?
- Bandar’s lovely isn’t he.

- Is Ran strange?
- Ran’s a bit strange isn’t she.

· You can swim
· You didn’t go to Colchester last Thursday night
· You’re not a dog
· You ate breakfast this morning
· You mustn’t complain
· You’re not afraid of spiders
· You should get more sleep
· You need money
· She looks great
· You’ve been to London before
· Let’s go shopping
· He’s so fat
· Sit down
· You love me
· You will call me when you get home
· You won’t forget me
· You mustn’t smoke
· Let’s have a party
· Open the window
· It’s not your birthday today
· They shouldn’t have gone to Germany
· England are going to win the next World Cup
· You can’t speak French
· It might rain today
· You can’t drive
· You’re bored of this exercise

If you're interested in trying some more lateral thinking puzzles, there's a website full of them if you follow this link. Hopefully the results won't tell you that you're some kind of murderer.

Modal verbs and the past

These are the sentences we created in class. Why did we spend so long talking about why Majed didn't kiss Ran?

1. If you weren’t able to see the board, you should have tried borrowing Mohammed’s glasses. (ABILITY)

2. Eman can’t have been 30 years old when that picture was taken! She looks so young! (LIKELIHOOD)

3. I was allowed to borrow Nada’s money because she didn’t need it. (PERMISSION)

4. – Who was that outside the room yesterday?
- It won’t have been Chris or Liz. They were both on holiday. (LIKELIHOOD)

5. Hani asked Bandar if he would help him because he couldn’t lift the table by himself. (VOLITION and ABILITY)

6. Su was so shy that she simply wouldn’t sing in class. (VOLITION)

7. – What was that strange noise last night?
- Don’t worry. It will have been Ahmed snoring. (LIKELIHOOD)

8. I think that Mark would have been 24 last year. (LIKELIHOOD)

9. Majed wasn’t allowed to kiss Ran = permission.

Majed couldn’t have kissed Ran because she was having dinner with Su last night. = likelihood
Majed wasn’t able to kiss Ran last night because he has just had lip surgery. = ability
Majed shouldn’t have kissed Ran because she’s got swine flu. = obligation
Majed wouldn’t kiss Ran yesterday because he wasn’t in the mood. = volition
Majed refused to kiss Ran yesterday because he wasn’t in the mood. = volition

10. Majed thought that West Brom might have won the FA Cup last year. (LIKELIHOOD)

11. Azhar might have given you money if you had smiled and asked nicely. (LIKELIHOOD)

12. You shouldn’t have spoken to Abdullah yesterday. He’s a bad influence.
(OBLIGATION)

13. Ahmed and Majed were both so stylish and handsome when they were younger. They must have had lots of girlfriends. (LIKELIHOOD)

14. Eman should have driven more slowly last night. She’s a very dangerous driver. (OBLIGATION)

15. English grammar could be difficult when I was at high school. / English grammar sometimes used to be difficult… (LIKELIHOOD)

16. The class should have had no trouble getting all these questions right. (LIKELIHOOD)

Project Class : Language Issues

Some documents and links for you from today's class. First we looked at linkers, and the document we created together - including those oh-so-cute examples - is available to dowload here. Answers to the question "Is it an English sentence?" can be found on this worksheet, also completed in class, and finally you can read all about the very cute Socks here on the BBC website, or through this exercise on the passive. Finally, you can, if you wish, follow this link to the Collins Concordancer Sampler...which most students don't actually tend to like. Never mind...

GVD Class : Error Correction and Modal Verbs of Likelihood

The word file we edited in class to correct mistakes from your written work is now available to download here not that my server is working again. You can also access the powerpoint presentation on SPORKS here.

Reported Questions

The powerpoint presentation from today's class are now available to download here. There's more on pages 171 and 172 of your textbook if you want more practice.

Reported Speech and Reporting Verbs

The first handout we looked at on reported statements is available to download here while the more difficult stuff on verbs of reference is available as a handout or powerpoint presentation. For more practice you can also look at pages 156 and 157 of your textbook and talk to me about any problems you encounter in working through the exercises.

Complexity

Because I'd hate to disappoint Ahmed, the Word file we produced together in class is available to download here. If you want to learn more about China's green ambitions and our friend John / Zhang, you can read the Guardian article in full here.

GVD Self-Study Worksheet

Those of you who have already given me completed worksheets on an article you read have picked up on some interesting vocabulary and grammar points, and I think it would be useful to do this kind of activity again and again. I've therefore uploaded the worksheet as a Word document and as a pdf for you to download, print, and use in your own time.

Project Class 7

The powerpoint presentation from today's class is available to download here.

All of the charts and graphs we looked at in class came from the UK National Statistics website.

GVD Class : Universal Grammar Exercise

Can you add the grammar to the following text? You will need to change the form of verbs, add prepositions, articles, and relative pronouns, and think about the form of adjectives and adverbs. Good luck!

“What be point worry too much future?” say Francine Beudet. Francine, her husband Hervé, and daughter, Marine, live 100 miles south Paris. “We no save much. We prefer spend our money now have good life”.

England, Gordon and Fiona Robinson take same approach money. Fiona decide stay home look after their daughter, Chloe, who be near 3. “I consider take part-time job, but as it be impossible Gordon be home set time each evening, it be too difficult arrange moment”.

Other side Channel, Francine find ideal solution problem combine work with run home and bring up children. She be nurse and she work part-time old-people’s home. Although hospital close Francine’s home, she need car get there quick.

Hervé expect buy his own car but he do receive hotel and petrol expenses for his work, involve drive enormous distance each year. He organise his work so that when Francine be night duty, he can get home every evening take care Marine.

Gordon’s car be provide his employer and he be lucky enough get new one every two years. He also spend each working day travel around his area, but instead stay overnight in hotels, he manage get home.

You can download the key here.

Online Etymology Dictionary

Not sure how many people will be interested in this, but I've been using this Online Etymology Dictionary and thought it might be useful to someone. To quote the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictonary definition, etymology is "the study of the origin and history of words, or a study of this type relating to one particular word". It may help you to become more aware of the relationship between spelling and meaning and how particular parts of a word may carry a meaning which can be recognised in other words. In class, for example, we noticed that the word "mortgage" starts with the same four letters are "mortal", and so may therefore be related to death. The Online Etymology Dictionary confirms that this is the case:


mortgage (n.)
1390, from O.Fr. morgage (13c.), mort gaige, lit. "dead pledge" (replaced in modern Fr. by hypothèque), from mort "dead" + gage "pledge;" so called because the deal dies either when the debt is paid or when payment fails. O.Fr. mort is from V.L. *mortus "dead," from L. mortuus, pp. of mori "to die" (see mortal). The verb is first attested 1467.

Perhaps this is only of interest to sad word geeks like myself, but if it's helpful to just one person then that's fine by me.

Vocabulary Exercises : Good Game?

These wordle clouds were created from vocabulary found in this article from The Economist.





Everything else I gave you in class is available here.

Project Class : Questionnaires

The sample questionnaire I showed you in class is available for you here as requested, along with the handout from today's session and the adjustments I made to the same handout while you were giving presentations. If you've got a spare few minutes and want to see a Likert scale in action, you could discover fascinating things you never knew about your own personality (maybe) via this questionnaire on the BBC Science & Nature website.

Monday's Class Materials

The four-in-a-row question grid we looked at in class is available here. If you want the answers the completed version of the grid is here for you too. Today I also gave you this handout on word parts, and this selection of extracts which contain examples of the type of vocabulary we looked at. Good luck finding three more examples in the article you're going to bring to class on Wednesday.

Do you speak English?