Talking, talking...

Valeriy, who lives in Russia, has sent me an e-mail. He asks whether I can make a podcast about these words – “say”, “tell”, “speak” and “talk”.

Well, that is easy, I thought. So I sat down to write a podcast about when we use “say” and when we use “tell” and so on. And after an hour, I realised that I could not do it. English is too complicated. There are far too many words in English and there are so many different ways of using them. So I thought, I will not try to explain everything. I shall just explain a few things – the most important things. I will write a few rules, and if my listeners learn these rules, they will be right most of the time. Please remember that “say”, “tell” and “speak” are irregular verbs. They go like this – I say, I said, I have said; I tell, I told, I have told; and I speak, I spoke, I have spoken. “Talk” is regular – I talk, I talked, I have talked. Everybody clear? Then let’s begin!

I want you to imagine that you are reading a comic book, about Batman perhaps. In many of the pictures there is a bubble coming from the mouth of one of the characters. It contains the words which the character is saying. We often call this a “speech bubble”.

Here is my RULE NUMBER 1. If you can imagine a speech bubble, with words in it, then you can always use the word “say”; like this :-

• Kevin says, “I am going to the football match on Saturday”.
• Batman says, “I have only five minutes to save the entire planet.”
• Joanna says that she will go to the supermarket tomorrow.
• Kevin says to Joanne, “Is it OK if I go to the football match on Saturday?”

When we want to explain who we say something to, we always use the word “to” – I said to him that I would be late. We NEVER say “I said him that I would be late”.

And here is RULE NUMBER 2. If there is no speech bubble with words in it, then you can use “talk” or “speak”.

• I will speak to my boss tomorrow about whether I can take a day off work.
• Kevin talks to George about the football match.
• Today, our teacher is going to talk about irregular verbs in English.

So you see, “speak” and “talk” can tell us who is speaking or talking; who the speaker is talking to; and what sort of thing the speaker is talking about. But they do not tell us about the exact words which the speaker uses. There is no speech bubble with words in it. Very often, “speak” and “talk” mean exactly the same, and we can use them interchangeably (that is, we can replace one of them with the other). I think that we use “talk” more often than we use “speak”.

And how about the last word which Valerij wants me to explain – the word “tell”? Here comes RULE NUMBER 3. “Tell” means “give information”. And we can use “tell” when there is a speech bubble, and also when there is no speech bubble, provided that we mean “give information”. Nearly always, when we use “tell”, we also say who the speaker is talking to. Like this:-

• Joanne tells her boss, “I have nearly finished the report that you asked for”.
• Kevin tells Joanne that he wants to go to the football match on Saturday.
• David told me about his holiday.
• He told me that he went to Spain, and that he had a great time there.
• John told me how to find his house.
• You asked me a question; now I will tell you the answer.
• I looked at my watch and told him the time.
• At the end of the school day, the teacher told the children a story.

I hope this helps you, Valeriy. Please keep sending me your comments and questions, either by e-mail or by leaving a comment on the web site. I shall do my best to reply to all of them. There is a vocabulary note attached to the podcast today, and also a quiz, so you can test how well you understand the difference between “talk”, “speak”, “say” and “tell”.

Download MP3 (6:33min, 3MB)

HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on the 10th of December.

The date was chosen to honour the United Nations General Assembly's adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first global enunciation of human rights. The commemoration was established in 1950, when the General Assembly invited all states and interested organisations to celebrate the day as they saw fit.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights-the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security.

"We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals – worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries – but only if we break with business as usual. We cannot win overnight. Success will require sustained action across the entire decade between now and the deadline. It takes time to train the teachers, nurses and engineers; to build the roads, schools and hospitals; to grow the small and large businesses able to create the jobs and income needed. So we must start now. And we must more than double global development assistance over the next few years. Nothing less will help to achieve the Goals." United Nations Secretary-General

• Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
• Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
• Goal 5: Improve maternal health
• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
• Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

For more information about The Human Rights Day: Wikipedia
For more information about the Millenium development goals: UN Millenium Goals

Immigration into Britain

A few years ago, there was an advertisement on a billboard close to where I live. It advertised a company called Western Union. You probably know about Western Union. Western Union sends money from one country to another. If you want to send money to your brother in South Africa, for example, you can go to a Western Union office in England and pay in some money. Then your brother can go to a Western Union office in South Africa, and collect the money which you have sent.

The unusual thing about this advertisement however was the language in which it was written. It was in Polish. It was aimed at Polish people who work in Britain, and who want to send money back to their families in Poland.

And last year, the local paper in Reading, a town close to London, printed one of its editions in Polish, for the benefit of the many Polish people who now live and work in Reading. You can see a photo of the paper on the website and on your iPod screens.

Since Poland joined the European Union in 2004, a lot of Polish people have come to this country. We sometimes joke in Britain about how all plumbers nowdays seem to be from Poland. And people have come from other East European countries as well. For example, I do not think that there are any buses still running in Lithuania, because there are so many Lithuanian bus drivers here in Birmingham.

Of course, immigration into Britain is not new. Over the last 50 years, a lot of immigrants have arrived here from for example Pakistan, India and the West Indies. But large scale immigration from Eastern Europe is new – it has been made possible by the European Union rules which say that people must be able to move freely throughout the Union and live and work in any EU member country.

You will find that many people in England do not have a positive view of immigration or of immigrants. They say that they take the jobs of British workers; and that they are a burden on our health, welfare and education systems. Some people say that immigrants are responsible for a lot of crime.

But a government report, published this week, takes a very different view. It says that in 2006, 12.5% of the workforce in this country were immigrants. Immigrants have, on average, higher skills than people in similar jobs who were born in Britain. They earn more as well, and so pay more in taxes. Many employers say that immigrant workers are more reliable, and are willing to work longer hours. Some sectors of the economy like agriculture and hotels and restaurants depend heavily on immigrant labour. The report concludes that, altogether, immigration into Britain contributes £6 billion a year to the British economy.

Of course, there are problems too. In Britain, house prices and rents are very high, and in some places immigration has pushed prices and rents even higher. Some immigrants have to live in poor housing, and are exploited by unscrupulous landlords. Other immigrants are employed by labour agencies or “gangmasters”, and some of these have a bad record for exploiting their workers. And there can be problems too when schools have to cope with a lot of pupils who do not speak English (though my experience is that children learn English very fast – it is adults who find new languages a problem).

The overall picture painted by the report is that immigration has greatly benefited Britain and the British economy. I guess that some of you who listen to my podcasts have come to Britain as immigrants, or you have worked in Britain and have now returned to your own countries. What do you think? Please post a comment on the podcast website saying what you like about living in Britain, and what you do not like.

Download MP3 (5:10min, 2MB)

Learn English though video- Planning a trip

Have you got a tight budget? Anyway, you can go on a tour and plan a cheap trip.
Learn about specific vocabulary about vacations, the use of superlatives, etc. Enjoy your trip!

Learn English through video- Time, time, time

Questions and answers about time.
Can you spare some time to listen to it?
Let's have a try! I hope you'll have a great Time.
See you next time!

Learn English through video- Food

Let's have a look at this video! The lesson helps you to express about the food you like or dislike, you can also talk about quantities, and so on.
Don't get frustrated if you don't understand everything! You will improve with time and practice.

And now, play the game to revise your vocabulary.

I have a dream...

Have you a dream? I mean, is there something that you would really like to do in your life – such as travelling round the world, or writing a best-selling novel, or climbing Mount Everest, or learning a new language. Good. It is important that we have dreams like these.

But what would you do to achieve your dream. Would you, for example, walk out of your job so that you could do the thing you really want to do? Hmm. That might be difficult. How would you get the money you need to live on? And suppose you had a well-paid and very important job. Would you give that job up to pursue your dream?

This morning’s newspapers tell us about someone who has done just that. His name is Paul Drayson. He is 47 years old. He started his career as a businessman, and he was very successful . He made a fortune as boss of a company which makes equipment for giving people medical injections without sticking a needle into them. Then he became interested in politics. He gave a lot of money to the Labour Party. The government made him a member of the House of Lords, which is the upper chamber of the British parliament. (This means that he is now Lord Drayson, and not plain, ordinary Mr Drayson.) Then Lord Drayson became a minister in the government, at the Ministry of Defence. He was responsible for buying equipment for the British armed forces. Both the government’s supporters and his opponents said that he was good at his job. He obviously had a bright political career ahead of him.

But Lord Drayson had a dream. It was a dream about driving motorcars very fast. He bought a 6-litre Aston Martin racing car. He drove it around race tracks. He competed in races; then he started to win some of the races, and this year he came third in the British GT championship. (The GT championships are for cars which are nearly the same as cars which you can drive on normal roads). People who know him say that, as a racing driver, Paul Drayson is both brave and intelligent. He is particularly interested in racing cars which run on bio-fuels, that is fuel which is made from plants like maize instead of from crude oil.

Personally, I think that motor racing is about as stupid a sport as golf; but I know that lots of people do not agree with me. I enjoyed reading the letter of resignation which Lord Drayson sent to the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. In the letter, he says that he has an opportunity to compete in motor races in the United States next year. This would be an important step towards his dream of winning the Le Mans 24 hour race in France. But he cannot do this and be a government minister at the same time. So he is resigning his job.

Wouldn’t you like to write a letter like this to your boss?

“Dear Boss, I have been offered an opportunity to go surfing in southern California next year, so I am resigning from my job as junior clerk in your office.”

“Dear Boss, Although I have been very happy making burgers here at McDonalds, I am resigning in order to pursue my dream of being the first person to walk backwards round the world.”

Download MP3 (4:34min, 2MB)

Living Upside-down

Do you like Mafalda's witty humour?

Mafalda is always asking very clever questions about the world and then, she shares her thoughts with her best friend, Felipe.

(IN SPANISH)

If you like it, there will be more coming soon.

The Red Kite

Have a look at the story and write your opinion about it:

1. Did you like it?
2. What is it about?
4. Which country could it be?
4. What happened to the boy?
5.What is the meaning of the final sentence on screen: "War is the unfolding of miscalculation"?
6. Do you agree?

The Prince and the Pauper

Background

The plot is fictional, but you'll learn a lot about London life in the 16th century. The Prince Edward Tudor is a real character. His father, Henry VIII (the one with the six wives), died when Edward was only 9 years old, and so the child Edward became King Edward VI. Edward died at the age of 15, so he is not as famous today as his father or his sisters, Queen Mary of Scots (Bloody Mary) and Queen Elizabeth I.

Author

Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born in Florida (Missouri) on 30 November 1835. When his father died in 1847, the 12-year old boy had to leave school and started an apprenticeship as typesetter. Aged 17, he went to New York and to Philadelphia where he wrote his first travelogues.

On 21 April 1910 Mark Twain died in Redding (Connecticut).

Excerpts: Chapters I - III

1. The birth of the Prince and the Pauper
2. Tom's early life
3. Tom's meeting with the Prince

Exercises

→ Exercise on Reading Comprehension

Download

→ complete book in PDF format (704,14 KiB)

English Tenses Practice

Present Progressive: Level 1 • Level 2 • Level 3

Simple Present: Level 1 • Level 2 Level 3

Simple Past: Level 1 • Level 2 • Level 3

Past Progressive: Level 1 • Level 2 • Level 3

Simple Present or Present Progressive?

• Exercise 1, Exercise 2, Exercise 3, Exercise 4, Exercise 5, Exercise 6
• Exercise 7, Exercise 8
• Exercise 9, Exercise 10, Exercise 11, Exercise 12

Tests

• Test 1
• Test 2
• Test 3

Past Progressive: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3

Exercise on simple past and past progressive

A poem: The Sound of Your laughter

To the children, whose laughter makes the world a tender shelter for hope. And also to that special person you love.

The sound of your laughter
Is what pulls me through
The harshest winter

The sound of your laughter
Makes every bright summer day
Brighter

The sound of your laughter
Is what gets me up in the morning
With it
I can take anything life can bring

Not to make too much out of it
But to me
Everyday Is a good day
To live
To The sound of your laughter.

Ronberge

(I'm sure you will like it, Lourdes, because you've got deep in your heart the sound of your sons' laughter).

Basketball Verbs Team

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME:

First, choose a ball: 1 point, 2 points or 3 points balls.
Then, wait until the sentence and the multiple choice answers appear.
Click on the answer you consider correct and throw the ball.
And the winner is...!

CÓMO JUGAR:

Escoge un balón: de 1 punto, 2 puntos o 3 puntos.
Luego, espera hasta que aparezcan la frase y las posibles respuestas.
Escoge una de ellas y lanza el balón a la canasta.
¡El ganador es...!

Arabian nights

Don't forget to switch on your loudspeakers if you want to listen to the tale.
(Enciende los altavoces para escuchar).

Dynamite and Doris Lessing

Today we go on a journey. It starts in Sweden over 100 years ago; and then moves to London; and finally moves to future worlds and other planets.

But we start in Sweden. Alfred Nobel spent his life finding ways to blow things up. He was born in 1833 in Stockholm. As a young man he became very interested in nitro-glycerine, a highly explosive chemical. He saw straight away how useful nitro-glycerine could be – in mines, for example, to blast tunnels through the rock; or in civil engineering, to clear the path for new roads and railways; or in war, so that people could blow each other up more efficiently. But nitro-glycerine is very unstable. If you handle it wrongly, it will explode. Alfred Nobel spent several years looking for a way of making nitro-glycerine more stable. His experiments caused a number of serious explosions, including one in which his brother and several other people were killed. But eventually, he was successful. He called his new explosive “dynamite”, and we still use dynamite and similar explosives today.

And after that, Alfred Nobel became a very rich man, because of course there was and still is a very big market in the world for blowing things up. He was also a very cultured and well-educated man. He spoke several languages fluently and had a deep interest in literature and poetry.

Alfred Nobel died in 1896. He left a large amount of money to establish five prizes. These would be awarded every year to people who had done outstanding things in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and the promotion of peace in the world. (Later, a sixth prize was added, for economics). These prizes have been awarded every year since 1901.

Now let us jump forward 106 years. Yesterday, an 87-year old woman went out to do some shopping. She arrived back at her home in north London in a taxi. She was surprised to find a crowd of newspaper reporters and TV camera crews waiting outside her house. At first, she thought they were filming something for a soap opera. But the reporters told her that she had just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The woman is Doris Lessing, who has been an important novelist for well over 50 years. She was born in Iran, where her father worked for a bank. The family later moved to Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. She moved to London in 1949 and published her first novel in the same year. As a young woman she joined the Communist Party and strongly opposed white rule in southern Africa. (She was banned from entering South Africa for nearly 40 years because of her opposition to apartheid).
But her novels are not simply political novels. They are very personal; that is, they explore what people feel and experience. Sometimes you will see Doris Lessing described as a feminist; but she has always said that it is too simple to describe her in this way. Some of her later novels are science fiction – that is, they are set in imaginary worlds, distant planets, or worlds of the future. Many people do not like her science fiction novels. They say that they are unreadable. They argue that it is much more interesting to write about the real world than about imaginary worlds. But Doris Lessing’s supporters say that her science fiction novels are just a new way of writing about what people are like inside.

You may not have read any of Doris Lessing’s books, but I guess that many of my listeners have read science fiction. What do you think? Is science fiction a new way of writing about what people are like, what they feel, what they experience? Or is it what we call “escapism”, that is a way of running away from the real world to hide in worlds that we have invented?

Download MP3 (5:52min, 3MB)

The immigrant

The Ring Road Tramp

Two weeks ago, I made a podcast about immigration into Britain from Eastern Europe. Today’s podcast is also about an immigrant from Eastern Europe.His name was Josef Stawinoga. He was born in Poland. We do not know much about his early life. It seems that he was involved in the second World War. Perhaps he was taken prisoner during the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. Or perhaps he served in the German army, as some people claim. He arrived in Britain some time after the war. He found a job working in a steel works. He married a woman from Austria, but it appears that he mistreated her, and she ran away.

Some time after his wife left him, Joseph stopped working at the steel works and dropped out of society. He became a tramp – he wandered the streets, with no proper home. For a time he seems to have lived in lodging houses, but by the 1970s he had found a home – a home where he lived for the rest of his life. It was a makeshift tent on the grass strip in the middle of Wolverhampton ring road.

Let me explain about ring roads. In the 1960s and 1970s, many local authorities in England decided that what their towns needed above everything else was a new road, running in a circle, around the town centre. These roads are known as ring roads. They disfigure most towns in England outside London. They say to us that cars are more important than people. Many ring roads are dual carriageways – that means that there is an empty piece of land in the middle of the road, to separate the cars racing in one direction from the cars racing in the other direction. Wolverhampton – which is an important town to the west of Birmingham – has a ring road, and it was there that Joseph decided to make his home.

Perhaps you think that you would like to live in the middle of a ring road too. However, you are not legally allowed to do this. But the local authority in Wolverhampton decided that it was best to let Joseph stay. His experiences during the war had damaged him psychologically. He may have suffered from claustrophobia – that is, a fear of being in a confined space, like a room or a building. So it was difficult to force him to live in a normal house.

Over the years, Joseph became a well-known sight in Wolverhampton. People called him “Fred” most of the time, instead of Joseph. He was often seen with a brush, sweeping rubbish off the ring road. Some people in the Indian and Sikh communities in Wolverhampton regarded him as a sort of holy man, and from time to time they would bring him gifts and food. His tent – actually it was just a piece of plastic sheeting – started to fall to bits. But Joseph, or Fred, refused to move, so the army came and erected a new tent over the top of the old one.

Joseph was found dead in his tent last week, on the 28th of October. He was 86 years old. He had lived in his tent for over 30 years. A lot of people in Wolverhampton are quite sad that he is no longer in the middle of the ring road. There is even talk of erecting a permanent monument to him. Why should we remember him? He did not do anything to help other people, as far as I know. He simply refused to live his life in a normal way. And that is important, don’t you think?

Download MP3 (4:59min, 2MB)

Revise your vocabulary

PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE

Presentación en power point del presente simple.

Descargar la presentación en este enlace.

THE FAMILY

En este documento tenéis la traducción de los apartados 1-5: The Barret Family , A family photo, What time is it?, Carol's Birthday Party y Hello! Good-bye!

Abrir el documento en PDF para ver las notas y comentarios.

The tale of Tom Kitten

This is THE TALE OF TOM KITTEN. You can read it and listen to it at the same time.

Open the PDF FILE.

IRREGULAR VERBS

INFINITIVO	PASADO SIMPLE	PARTICIPIO DE PASADO	TRADUCCIÓN
arise awake be beat become begin bend bet bite bleed blow break bring broadcast build burn burst buy catch choose come cost cut deal dig do draw dream drink drive eat fall feed feel fight find fly forbid forget forgive freeze get give go grow hang have hear hide hit hold hurt keep kneel know lay lead learn leave lend let lie light lose make mean meet mistake overtake pay put read ride ring rise run say see seek sell send set sew shake shine shoot show shrink shut sing sink sit sleep smell speak spell spend split spoil spread stand steal stick sting strike strive swear sweep swim swing take teach tear tell think throw understand upset wake wear weep win withdraw write	arose awoke was, were beat became began bent bet bit bled blew broke brought broadcast built burnt burst bought caught chose came cost cut dealt dug did drew dreamt drank drove ate fell fed felt fought found flew fordad(e) forgot forgave froze got gave went grew hung had heard hid hit held hurt kept knelt knew laid led learnt left lent let lay lit lost made meant met mistook overtook paid put read rode rang rose ran said saw sought sold sent set sewed shook shone shot showed shrank shut sang sank sat slept smelt spoke spelt spent split spoilt spread stood stole stuck stung struck strove swore swept swam swung took taught tore told thought threw understood upset woke wore wept won withdrew wrote	arisen awoken been beaten become begun bent bet bitten bled blown broken brought broadcast built burnt burst bought caught chosen come cost cut dealt dug done drawn dreamt drunk driven eaten fallen fed felt fought found flown forbidden forgotten forgiven frozen got given gone grown hung had heard hidden hit held hurt kept knelt known laid led learnt left lent let lain lit lost made meant met mistaken overtaken paid put read ridden rung risen run said seen sought sold sent set sewn shaken shone shot shown shrunk shut sung sunk sat slept smelt spoken spelt spent split spoilt spread stood stolen stuck stung struck striven sworn swept swum swung taken taught torn told thought thrown understood upset woken worn wept won withdrawn written	surgir despertar(se) ser/estar golpear hacerse empezar doblar(se) apostar morder sangrar soplar romper traer emitir construir quemar(se) estallar comprar coger elegir venir costar cortar tratar cavar hacer dibujar soñar beber conducir comer caer(se) alimentar sentirse pelearse encontrar volar prohibir olvidar(se) perdonar helar(se) conseguir dar irse crecer colgar haber/tener escuchar esconder(se) golpear agarrar(se) hacer daño guardar arrodillarse saber/conocer poner llevar aprender dejar prestar permitir echarse encender(se) perder hacer significar encontrar(se) equivocar(se) adelantar pagar poner leer montar sonar levantarse correr decir ver buscar vender(se) enviar poner coser agitar brillar disparar mostrar encoger(se) cerrar(se) cantar hundir(se) sentar(se) dormir oler hablar deletrear pasar/gastar dividir(se) estropear(se) extender(se) estar de pie robar pegar(se) picar golpear esforzarse jurar barrer nadar balancear(se) tomar(se) enseñar romper(se) contar/decir pensar lanzar entender afligir despertar(se) llevar (puesto) llorar ganar retirar(se) escribir

ACTIVITIES

2º y 4º ESO:

Basic:

Fichas de contenido específico		Fichas variadas de trabajo
	Artículos "a" - "an"
	Verbos "be" - "have"		Ficha de actividades 01
	Verbos "be" - "have" (2)		Ficha de actividades 02
	Diálogo: preguntas y respuestas		Ficha de actividades 03
	Diálogo (2)		Ficha de actividades 04
	Contracciones		Ficha de actividades 05
	Nacionalidades		Ficha de actividades 06
	This, that, these, those, here, there		Ficha de actividades 07
	Profesiones		Ficha de actividades 08
	Genitivo sajón y Question tag		Ficha de actividades 09
	Preposiciones		Ficha de actividades 10
	Afirmativa - negativa - interrogativa		Ficha de actividades 11
	Afirmativa - negativa - interrogativa (2)		Ficha de actividades 12
	Opposites		Ficha de actividades 13
	Opposites (2)		Ficha de actividades 14
	Números cardinales		Ficha de actividades 15
	Números cardinales y ordinales		Ficha de actividades 16
	much - many		Ficha de actividades 17
	Verbos, 3ª persona del singular		Ficha de actividades 18
	Short answer		Ficha de actividades 19
	La forma en "-ing" (verbos)		Ficha de actividades 20
	Presente continuo (-ing)