June 30, 2011

Parts of the house

Hey guys!



Today we're going to know more about the parts of the house, including furniture. Read the text below carefully, please:


In the living room of this apartment, we have a three-seat sofa, a chair, a television, a bookshelf, a lampshade and a beautiful rug. The walls are decorated with wallpaper, but if you don't like this template, you can change it. In the kitchen, we have a stove, an oven, a two-door refrigerator, a microwave, a cabinet and a small pantry in the back. When you move here, you can bring your own cutlery and plates. Then, we have two bedrooms, which have a single bed, a wardrobe, a bed table and lampshade. The bathroom is small, but is very beautiful. It has a toilet bowl, a shower, a sink and the walls are covered with white and small tiles. All the rooms have windows. I know you have a garden in your current home. If you want to have a garden, no matter how small, you can put flower pots on the balcony of the bedrooms. It is a very good idea. I hope you like this apartment.

Do you know what the underlined words mean?
On the next post, there will be an exercise about this.


VERY IMPORTANT: Do you know the difference between house and home? No? Ok, I'll tell you on the next post.


See you!

June 28, 2011

Meeting people

Hello once again!

Well, I know I should have posted about this much earlier, but I don't know why I didn't do it.
Today you're going to learn how to greet people in English, so pay close attention. In the dialogue below, we have two people who meet in the school:







Kathy: Hello!
John: Hi!
Kathy: How are you?
John: I'm fine, thanks. How about you?
Kathy: I'm pretty good, thanks.
John: Please, have a seat.
Kathy: Oh, thanks.
John: What's your name?
Kathy: My name is Katherine, but call me Kathy.
John: Nice to meet you, Kathy. My name is John.
Kathy: Nice to meet you too, John.

Read this other dialogue:

Mark: Good evening!
Paul: Good eveing! How are you?
Mark: I'm very well, thanks. And you?
Paul: The same here.
Mark: How is your wife?
Paul: My wife is better now, thank you so much!
Mark: All right. I have to go now.
Paul: Take care!
Mark: Ok, see you tomorrow!
Paul: Bye-bye.

Here there are some phrases you can use when meeting people:
Good morning.
Good afternoon.
Good night.
Good evening.
How are you?
I'm fine, thank you/ thanks.
How have you been?
What's your name?
My name is ... .
Do you have any brothers or sisters?
What are their names?
Can you spell your name, please?
Of course.
Sure.
How old are you?
I'm 15,16...
Would you like to ... ?
Nice to meet you!
Nice to meet you too!
It was nice to speak to you!
See you tomorrow.
Have a good day.
See you soon.
See you later.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Goodbye.
See you!

Now you know how to meet people (as if you didnt' know).

See you!

June 25, 2011

Writing Numbers in Words

Hello everybody!

Can you write these mathematical calculations in words?

a) 12 - 8 = 4
b) 54 + 5 = 59
c) 182 : 2 = 91
d) 45 · 5 = 225
e) 12 + 4 : 2 = 8
f) 59 %
g) 2³ : 2² = 2
h) ½
i) US$15.95
j) 5 ft and 2 in = 1.57 m


See you!

June 24, 2011

Mathematical Expressions and Use of Numbers in Day-to-day

Hello again!

Today I am going to post about Mathematical Expressions such as %, or √, because nowadays, it is very important to know about this, even if Math is the subject most feared by people. So, pay attention:









MATHEMATICAL OPERATIONS:
+  - plus
-  - minus
· or x - times/ multiplied by
: or ÷ - divided by
= - equal/ is equal to
% - percent/ percentage
5² - five squared
5³ - five cubed
5¹º - five to the power of ten
√ - square root of
1/2 - a/one half
1/3 - a third/ one third
1/4 - a/one quarter/fourth
1/12 - a/one twelfh
2/3 - two thirds
25/48 - twenty-five over fourty-eight
2 1/2 - two and a/one half
0.2 - nought point two
4.258 - nought point two five eight


10 - 3 = 7
ten minus three is equal to/ is seven


DAYS:
First, write the month, then the day, and finally the year. Observe:
March 12, 1995.
March 12th, 1995
March the 12th, 1995


I was born on March 12, 1995.


MONEY:
In English, the point (.) between two numbers is replaced by a comma, and the comma will become a point in English:
Portuguese  -  English
R$ 1,00         US$1.00 or $1 (one dollar)
R$1,50          US$1.50 or US$1.5 (one dollar and fifty cents)
R$ 1,55         US$1.55 (one dollar and fifty-five cents)
R$159,86      US$ 159.86 (one hundred and fifty-nine dollars and eighty-six cents) 


These numbers are not correct. R$1,00 is not equal to US$1.00, ok?


MEASURES:
1 inch (in) (uma polegada) = 2.54 cm
1 foot (ft) (um pé) = 30.48 cm
1 yard (yd) (uma jarda) = 91 cm
1 mile (uma milha) = 1.609 km
1 league (uma légua) = 4.828 km


A: How tall are you?
B: I'm 6 feet and 1 inch tall.
A: Wow!


I think I said almost everything you will need someday. That's all!


See you!

June 23, 2011

Ordinal Nunbers

Hi!

As I said, today I'll post about the Ordinal Numbers. There is a list with the numbers from 1 to 1,000,000,000 below:




1st - first
2nd - second
3rd - third
4th - fourth
5th - fifth
6th - sixth
7th - seventh
8th - eighth
9th - ninth
10th - tenth
11th - eleventh
12th - twelfth
13th - thirteenth
14th - fourteenth
15th - fifteenth
16th - sixteenth
17th - seventeenth
18th - eighteenth
19th - nineteenth
20th - twentieth
21st - twenty-first
22nd - twenty-second
23rd - twenty-third
24th - twenty-fourth
25th - twenty-fifth
26th - twenty-sixth
27th - twenty-seventh
28th - twenty-eighth
29th - twenty-ninth
30th - thirtieth
40th - fortieth
50th - fiftieth
60th - sixtieth
70th - seventieth
80th - eightieth
90th - ninetieth
100th - one hundredth
1,000th - one thousandth
1,000,000th - one millionth
1,000,000,000th - one billionth

I will also post about different uses of numbers in our day-to-day.

See you!

Cardinal Numbers

Hello everybody!


Well, I think you already know quite a lot about numbers in English, but today I am going to post about them.
There is a list with the numbers from 0 to 1,000,000,000 below.
There are some rules for writing numbers in words:
1. You must put a hyphen between the tens and units --> ninety-two.
2. When you write a number between the hundreds and the tens, you have to add an "and" between them --> Two hundred and eleven.



0 - zero
1- one
2 - two
3 - three
4 - four
5 - five
6 - six
7 - seven
8 - eight
9 - nine
10 - ten
11 - eleven
12 - twelve
13 - thirteen
14 - fourteen
15 - fifteen
16 - sixteen
17 - seventeen
18 - eighteen
19 - nineteen
20 - twenty
21 - twenty-one
22 - twenty-two
23 - twenty-three
24 - twenty-four
25 - twenty-five
26 - twenty-six
27 - twenty-seven
28 - twenty-eight
29 - twenty-nine
30 - thirty
40 - forty
50 - fifty
60 - sixty
70 - seventy
80 - eighty
90 - ninety
100 - a hundred/ one hundred
101 - one hundred one
111 - one hundred and eleven
1,000 - one thousand
1,000,000 - one million
1,000,000,000 - one billion

VERY IMPORTANT: In the USA, "bilion" means a number with 9 zeros: 1,000,000,000. But in England, we don't say "billion", we say "thousand million" or "milliard". "Billion", in England, means "trillion".

I'll post about ordinal numbers on the next post.

See you!

June 18, 2011

Idioms

Hello!

Today we're going to learn some idioms. In portuguese, idioms means "expressões idiomáticas". I'll post some idioms for you to practice your English:

A taste of your onw medicine
When you are mistreated the same way you mistreat others.

Actions speak louder than words
It's better to actually do something than just talk about it.

Barking up the wrong tree
A mistake made in something you are trying to achieve.

Blue Moon
Something that is not expected to happen, like a rare event.

Cross your fingers
To hope that something happens the way you want it to.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch
Don't rely on it until you're sure of it.

Every cloud has a silver lining.
Be optimistic.

Flip the Bird
To raise the middle finger at someone.

Get up on the wrong side of the bed
Someone who's having a horrible day.

Haste makes waste
Quickly doing things results in a poor ending.

It's a small world
When you see the same people in different places.

Joshing me
Tricking me.

Knock on wood
To tap on wood in order to avoid some bad luck.

Source: idiomsite.com

That's all. I'll post more idioms on other posts. I hope you use the idioms.

See you!

June 11, 2011

Listening - Little Bird

What's up?

Today we will listen to the song Little Bird, by Infant Sorrow. I'll post the lyric below:




Little bird
Drink the champagne from my lips
Take a flying saucer trip
To the stars in my eyes
Little bird
Sitting on the tip of my tongue
Though you look a bit too young
Could be the stars in my eyes
Your words like butterflies
Dance around my head
Your body like forbidden wine
Spills out of my bed
Hope your Daddy doesn't mind
Hope your Mummy doesn't mind
Hope your Granny doesn't mind
Hope your Grandpa doesn't mind
Little bird
You have got to be eighteen
Or a few years past your teens
Or you are in my eyes
Little bird
If you were born before '92
Then you know just what to do
Rip the stars from my eyes
Your words like butterflies
Dance around my head
Your body like a cherry pie
Spills out of my bed
Hope your Daddy doesn't mind
Hope your Mummy doesn't mind
Hope your Nanna doesn't mind
Hope your Grandpa doesn't mind
Little bird
Brand new galaxies await you
Open up and let me take you
To the stars
Your words like butterflies
Dance around my head
Your body like forbidden wine
Spills out of my bed
Hope your Daddy doesn't mind
Hope your Mummy doesn't mind
Hope your Granny doesn't mind
Hope your Grandpa doesn't mind
Hope your Daddy doesn't mind
Hope your Mummy doesn't mind
Hope your Daddy doesn't mind
Hope your Mummy doesn't mind
Little bird
Little bird
Little bird
Thats' all...
See you!

June 09, 2011

Despite vs In spite of

Hello everyone!

Today we're going to learn how to use the words Despite and In spite of. In portugusese, these words mean "apesar". But how to use these words? Well, you can use them as you wish. There's no difference between them! But is it not so easy. After these words, there must be a pronoun (that, this, what...) or a verb in gerund form. Look at the examples:

In spite of having studied a lot, I didn't pass the entrance exam.
Despite I have been silent, she could hear me.

Can you understand it? I hope so.
That's all.

See you!

June 07, 2011

False Cognates - Exercises

Hello everybody!

Choose the best alternative for the underlined words:
You will better answer this exercice if you speak Portuguese.

1.Library
a.Livraria
b.Biblioteca
c.Livros

2.Deception
a.Corte
b.Decepção
c.Fraude


3.Defendant
a.Defensor
b.Réu
c.Defesa

4.Comprehensive
a.Compreensivo
b.Abrangente
c.Compulsório

5.Disco
a.Discoteca
b.Disco
c.Fiscal

6.Commodity
a.Mercadoria
b.Comodidade
c.Incomodar

7.Actually
a.Atualizar
b.Atualmente
c.Na verdade

8.Terrific
a.Terrível
b.Temível
c.Ótimo

9.Reclamation
a.Queixa 
b.Reivindicação
c.Proclamação




That's all, people.

See you!

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