We’re back with some more pronunciation and today we’re going over the correction of information. I’m going to use the word “actually, “which is a softener. It’s useful when you are correcting a previous statement. If you introduce your response with actually, you will sound more polite.
Here are some sentences you can complete with friends.
Wow! I accidentally scheduled this for two months out. Apologies!
Ahhh, personality adjectives! Who loves describing people, or trying to describe people, but they don’t have the adjectives at hand to do so? Referring back to the google dictionary that completely mistranslates the point you’re trying to get across? Rest assured! I’m here to give you some personality adjectives!
First, trying thinking of the possible opposites of these words: clever, friendly, hard-working, patient, polite, quiet, reliable, serious, tidy.
Do you think you would like this person in the text?
Henry is one of my best friends, but we’re quite different. He’s usually quite shy and reserved. When you go out with him to a party, he doesn’t usually talk to many people, especially if he’s never met them before. He’s a very sensitive and tactful person. He does his best not to hurt anyone’s feelings. In that sense, he’s quite mature. He’s really gifted and talented, too. He can play three instruments really well. But because he’s so modest and down-to-earth, only his good friends know just how talented he is. His favorite type of music is classical, but he’s quite broad-minded, musically speaking. He’ll listen to any type of music as long as it’s good. I don’t want to give the idea that Henry is perfect though. He can be very insecure at times, especially when he starts worrying about how he’s going to do in exams. And he can also be a bit bad-tempered, getting angry for no good reason. He’s still a great friend though.
Gateway B2
Match the following words with the ones in bold above: big-headed (two words), good-natured/easygoing, immature, narrow-minded, outgoing (2 words), self-confident, tactless (2 words).
You can make what you say more interesting by not relying on the same adjectives all the time. Try to use more descriptive language. For example, instead of saying a room is very dirty, you could say it’s grimy or filthy. We have an immediate and clear image in our minds. Instead of just a cold day, perhaps it’s chilly, bitter, or freezing?
Welcome back to another ESL podcast! I’m back with some more vocabulary today, and of course, your favorite type of skill….
SUFFIXES!
Two common suffixes you can add to words to make adjectives are -ful and -less. The suffix -ful means “full of” (fearful = full of fear, cheerful = full of cheer) and -less means “without” (fearless = without fear). For some words, either suffix can be added. For others, you can use on suffix but not the other.
-ful
-ful and -less
-less
successful
painful/painless
priceless
beautiful
hopeful/hopeless
sleepless
stressful
thoughtful/thoughtless
jobless
useful/useless
homeless
Task
Look at these word roots. which can take -ful and which can take -less? Which can take either? Make a diagram like the one above.
Words: harm, truth, power, point, beauty, care, help, worth
-ful -ful and less -less
2. Match the root word and correct suffix -ful or -less to complete these sentences.
Words: stress, home, fear, harm, wonder, point, success, power
It’s _____________ to have come here. I’m so glad you invited me to come to this speaking engagement.
A phobia is more than merely being _______________of something, like heights.
You probably fear failure because it may be ____________ to your image.
You feel ____________ when you’re in situations that you cannot control.
Traveling can be very _____________ for a lot of us.
After a lot of hard work, he was ___________in finally establishing himself as the CEO of the company.
Her friends tried to reason with her, but it was _____________. She wouldn’t listen.
In America, 1 million government workers are fearful that they may become _______________.
Hello, everyone! As promised, here’s the second installment of the podcast/blog I did WAYYYY earlier today. I wanted to go more in-depth with clauses because I know a few of you may have not understood.
Extreme ironing is an unusual sport which was invented in 1997 by an Englishman whose name is Phil Shaw. He had to do ironing at home, but he preferred to go rock climbing. So he decided to combine the two things. Of course, ironing and climbing are two activities that don’t have a lot in common. but now people do it all over the world. When Phil was in New Zealand, he started an organization called Extreme Ironing International. Diving, skiing, skating, and parachuting are some of the other sports which people have combined with ironing. Underwater, in the air and on top of the mountains are just some of the strange places where people have done this sport. Ben Gibbons and John Roberts are two Englishmen whose adventure with extreme ironing became a short film, Extreme Ironing to Mount Everest.
Gateway
Second Task
Use the following relative pronouns to complete the sentences: who, which, whose, when, where, that
The winner of the 100m dash in the olympics is the person ________ finishes first.
A referee is the person ___________ job is the control the game.
“Content” words carry the most meaning in a sentence so receive more stress. They include questions words, nouns, most verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and negative auxiliary verbs (don’t, won’t, hasn’t, etc).
“Function” words give a sentence its grammatically correct form. They carry little meaning so are unstressed. They include articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, the verb be, and affirmative auxiliary verbs (do, can, did, etc).
Listen to the audio in the podcast down below to understand what words are stressed.
