Warm up:
My grammar is better/ worse/ as good as (than) my
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Listening
Speaking
because ___________
a wet blanket – a spoilsport – takes the fun out of everything
slsknet.org
If and unless
unless
If not = unless
Except if = unless (UK)
Take an umbrella in case it rains – if it is raining (UK)
Take an umbrella in case it rains = because it might rain (US)
It’s (high) time + a subject pronoun (I, you, etc) = it should have
happened before
Different from
It’s
It’s time (for you) to go = it’s the right time for that to happen
I’d rather not cook tonight – when both verbs relate to the same subject,
use would rather + a base form
I’d rather you cooked dinner instead – when the subjects are different, you
need to mention both subjects, and use the verb in the past
Big time = a lot
Stephen Pinker – The Stuff of Thought (highly recommended. An interesting
look at language and Human Nature)
You can see a snippet of a talk given by Pinker here:
WISH:
When the subject of wish and the subject of the next clause are the same,
you do not use WOULD in the second clause, simply because it doesn’t make sense.
I wish means you’d like something to happen, but you don’t think it will.
Like for instance, I wish Botafogo would REALLY play to win next Sunday
(being a long-suffering Botafogo fan though, I’m not that optimistic about
my team’s performance in the final)
Now if you’re talking about yourself, if you’d like yourself to do something,
but don’t think you will, the reason for that is that you probably won’t be
able to, so, instead od WOULD, you’d choose to use COULD.
For instance:
“I’d like to go out, but I don’t think I will”
why
Well, why not?
Because I have to file my income tax return. The deadline is looming!
What you mean here is that you CAN’T really go out or your tax income
form won’t get filed; Therefore,
I WISH I COULD go out tonight.
PUNCTUATION and RELATIVE CLAUSES:
After a comma, in a relaive clause, you can never use that. Instead, you
have to use
WHO – for people
WHICH – for things or to refer to the whole clause before the comma.
Examples:
Stephen Hawkin, WHO is a brillianr physicist, is said to be gravely ill right
now.
I recently listened to George’s Secret Key to the Universe, WHICH was
written by Hawkin and his daughter (which here refers to the book).
I recently listened to George’s Secret Key to the Universe, WHICH is a fun book that explains physics to little kids. (which here refers to the book).
Hawkin took the time to write a book for kids, WHICH is amazing considering the amount of serious writing he has to do in the course of his career. (which here refers to the whole first clause – the fact that he took the time to write such a book.
BY and UNTIL:
BY is used when you refer to a single action before a deadline.
I’ll have to file my income tax return by April 30.
UNTIL is used to refer to a continuous action before a deadline:
I’ll be working on the freaking income tax return until then.
IN FRONT OF as opposed to OPPOSITE, ACROSS FROM, and FACING.
Remember the street where our building is located
There’s a McDonalds nearby
The bust stop is in front of McD (same side of the street)
Our building is opposite/ACROSS FROM/FACING McD (on the other side of the
street)
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