Using Capital Letters (Part 2)

 This is the second part of the post we started last Tuesday ! Don't  forget to  test yourself at the end !

7.Use a capital letter for trade-marks and names of companies and other organizations:

Coca Cola 

Apple

Microsoft Corporation, Mitsubishi

the United Nations, the Red Cross

8. Use a capital letter for places and monuments:

London, Paris, the Ramblas

the Eiffel Tower, St Paul's Cathedral

Buckingham Palace, the White House

Oxford Street, Seventh Avenue

Jupiter, Mars

Asia, the Middle East, the North Pole

9. Use a capital letter for names of vehicles like ships, trains and spacecraft:

the Titanic

the Orient Express

Challenger 2, the Enterprise

10. Use a capital letter for titles of books, poems, songs, plays, films etc:

War And Peace

The Shadow of the Wind

Like a Virgin

Romeo and Juliet

Gone With The Wind, The Dark Knight

11. Use capitals letters (sometimes!) for headings, titles of articles, books etc, and newspaper headlines:

HOW TO LEARN ENGLISH

Chapter 2: OBAMA’S EARLY LIFE

LIFE FOUND ON MARS!

DOG WINS LOTTERY

 Now test yourself by rewriting this sentence using capitals where necessary.

australian english teacher jane crocket loves eating italian food. she bought a cookbook by famous chef stefano bibiano after she had dinner at his award winning restaurant the lemon cello in rome. she goes on holiday each christmas and enjoys visiting museums like the national gallery in london or barcelona’s picasso museum. her favourite song is imagine by john lennon and she enjoys doing voluntary work for the royal society for the protection of animals, known as the rspca.


How did you do? Check your answers.

Australian English teacher Jane Crocket loves eating Italian food. She bought a cookbook by famous chef Stefano Bibiano after she had dinner at his award winning restaurant the Lemon Cello in Rome. She goes on holiday each Christmas and enjoys visiting museums like the National Gallery in London or Barcelona’s Picasso Museum. Her favourite song is Imagine by John Lennon and she enjoys doing voluntary work for the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals, known as the RSPCA.

Using Capital Letters (Part 1)

In English, we do not use capitals letters very much, but perhaps we use them more than in Spanish. They are mainly used for the first letter of sentences, names, days and months and  for some abbreviations. In addition, of course, we always write the first person pronoun as a capital  I.

When do we Use Capital Letters?

1. Use a capital letter for the personal pronoun 'I':

What can I have to eat? 

2. Use a capital letter to begin a sentence or to begin speech:

The man entered the room. He didn’t speak. 

Finally John asked, "What is the matter?" 

3. Use capital letters for many abbreviations and acronyms:

G.M.T. or GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) 

N.A.T.O. or NATO or Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 

4. Use a capital letter for days of the week, months of the year, holidays:

Monday, Tuesday ,January, February ,Christmas ,Independence Day 

5. Use a capital letter for countries, languages and nationalities, religions:

China, France ,Japanese, English ,Christianity, Buddhism 

6. Use a capital letter for people's names and titles:

Anthony, Ram, William Shakespeare ,Professor Jones, Dr Smith ,Captain Steel, King Henry VIII 

Laughter is the best medicine !

Reir te hace sentir mejor.Esperamos que estos tres chistes ( jokes) te ayuden a conseguirlo ! 

The future of the frog

A frog telephones the Psychic Hotline:

-You are going to meet a beautiful young girl who will want to know everything about you.

The frog says:

-This is great! Will I meet her at a party, or what?

-No. Next semester in her biology class.

 "Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress. "

Wake Up!

A teacher is speaking in the classroom when he notices a student sleeping way up in the back row. The teacher shouts to the sleeping student’s neighbour:

- Hey ! wake that student up!

The neighbour says:

- Oh, no. You put him to sleep, you wake him up!

 Books about elephants

In an international contest, every nation has to write a book about the elephant:

The French book: The Sex Life of the Elephant or: 1000 ways to cook Elephant.

The English book: Elephants I have shot on Safari.

The Welsh book: The Elephant and its influence on Welsh language and culture.

The American book: How to Make Bigger and Better Elephants.

The Japanese book: How to Make Smaller and Cheaper Elephants.

Mastering Technology

El mundo está cada vez más condicionado por el uso de Internet, la tecnología y las diferentes formas de comunicación. Nadie se puede cuestionar el hecho que la lengua inglesa contribuye notablemente a enriquecer el vocabulario usado en el campo de la tecnología. En este post, repasaremos algunos de estos términos relacionados con el mundo de la comunicación.

      

Useful Nouns and Verbs related to Technology and Communication

NOUNS	VERBS
a phone	to phone; to ring
a mobile	to phone; to ring; to text
a fax	to fax; to send; to receive
a printer	to print; to print off  (BE), to print out  (AE)
a scanner	to scan
a photocopier	to photocopy; to copy;  to make copies
a tape recorder; a tape / cassette player	to tape (grabar) ; to rewind; (rebobinar)   to fast forward;(avanzar)   to eject;(expulsar)
a video player; a CD player; a DVD player	to record; to tape; to rewind; to fast forward;
an e-mail	to email; to reply; to delete; to send;  to forward;(reenvíar) to type (teclear);  to attach (adjuntar)
a click	to click (clikear)
a radio; a radio broadcast (una retransmisión radiofónica)	to listen; to record
a TV; a TV programme	to watch; to record

My and Mine

En el post de hoy  damos un repaso rápido a estas  formas de posesivo . ¡ No olvides completar el test al final !

Possessive adjectives (my, your, his,her,its, our, your, their) are used with a noun:

My name is John.What is your name?

I lost my keys in the bar.

Peter broke his arm when he fell off a tree.

Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his,hers, its, ours, yours, theirs) are used when we do not want to repeat the same noun because it is clear what we are talking about. They can always be substituted by a possessive adjective + a noun:

My name is John. What is yours? [=What is your name?]

My father and I both have a Renault, but mine is bigger than his [=my Renault is bigger than his Renault].

Alice’s dog is not as tall as mine [as my dog].

BE CAREFUL: We normally add –s to the possessive adjective to make a possessive pronoun (her _ hers; our _ ours). This –s does not mean plural !

Complete the sentences with the right possessive. Use mine / my / yours /her.

Mary broke (a) __________ leg last week when she went skiing. I’ve never broken (b) __________, but I broke (c) ___________ arm once when I fell down the stairs.

(d) __________ cat is called “Pussy”. What is (e) __________ called?

Answer Key : (a) her; (b) mine; (c) my; (d) my; (e) yours

Mexican Cuisine

Las antiguas civilizaciones de Méjico eran excelentes granjeros que cultivaban cacao, judías, maiz y chile. Los colonizadores Españoles trajeron el arroz, el trigo, la ganadería y los productos lácteos. La fusión de ingredientes y técnicas Europeas y Mejicanas ha dado lugar a una cocina muy sofisticada que se basa en estofados, salsas, sopas y en platos como las tortillas, los burritos, los tacos o las enchiladas, por supuesto todo acompañado con unas gotitas de buen tequila.

  

The Chilli

One of the basic ingredients in Mexican food is the chilli, which ancient civilizations were using 5000 years ago. They come in many colours and sizes, which you will discover on a visit to any Mexican market. Different chillies are combined – fresh or dried, (secos) roasted (asados) or raw (crudos) – to give every sauce its unique flavour.(sabor) Some famous varieties are the mild (suaves) green-black poblano chillies and the orange coloured habanero chillies, which are the hottest (los más picantes) in the world!

      

Mole Sauces

The chilli is one of the essential ingredients in mole sauces. The other two are various seeds (semillas) and a little chocolate. Each region has its own distinctive sauce, and gives the sauce its name. Mole from Puebla, for example, is called “mole poblano”. Each family’s recipe is different, and making the mole is a complicated process. You add the finished sauce to meat, usually turkey (pavo) or chicken, and cook it slowly.(a fuego lento)

      

Frijoles, Tortillas and Salsa

 These three things form part of a Mexican’s daily diet. Many different varieties of beans, frijoles, are central to the comida corrida. They are combined with bacon or different types of meat to produce delicious dishes.To accompany the meal is the sauce, the salsa. A simple one is made with chopped (cortados a trozos) tomatoes, chillies and onions – but there are many more combinations. Finally, there is tortilla, Mexican bread, made from wheat in the north and corn in the south. This is often filled (relleno) with meat or cheese, and fried. No meal is complete without some.

Prepositions of time: for and during

For y during  son dos preposiciones muy fáciles de confundir. Un sencillo truco para decidir cuándo utilizar  una u otra es saber que "for" responde a preguntas hechas con "How long ...?"  y "during"  a preguntas que empiezan por "When ...?" . a continuación encontrarás algunos ejemplos y un ejercicio para practicarlo.

FOR expresses the duration of an action. It is used to say how long an action took. We cannot use “during” to express that.

 Examples:

He lived in France for three years and then went back to England.
We have been waiting here for twenty minutes now and he hasn’t come yet.
We will travel around South America for six months and visit different countries.


DURING introduces a period of time in which something happens. Sometimes, “during” can be substituted by “in”.

Examples:

We saw each other twice during [in] that week.
During the conference, the ministers talked to the press after every meeting.
We never got round to seeing each other during the month that I spent in London.

Complete the sentences with for or during.

a) Marc has been studying English ___________ two years.

b) Helen and Peter fell in love _____________ a trip to Africa.

c) ___________ his hunger strike, he didn’t eat anything and only drank water.

d) The workers have been on strike ________________ a week now.


Answers: a- for,b-during,c-During,d-for.