(Grammar) Prepositions

Easier (A1/2):

A1/2 prepositions


Writing task:

Describe your country

Some questions:

In

What is in the north, south, west, east, centre?

Which part of the country do you live in?

Where's the best place to be in winter, summer etc?


Far / near

Which parts of the country are far away from / near your town? Which towns are near the ocean?

On

Which cities are on a river?
Do any people live on islands?

By

Which places are by the sea?

Through

Do you have to go through forests or mountains or valleys when travelling anywhere?

Between

Which places are between one place and another place?

Next to / beside

Which places are next one another?

Of

What's at the top of or bottom of your country? What's in the middle of your country?

Across

How do you travel across the country? Do you have to take a ferry across the water to get anywhere?
How long does it take to drive across the country?

Up / down

What's like to drive up or down the coast?

To

What's you favourite place to go to?

Around

Is there a place that's good to walk around?

At

What's the first thing you'll notice at the beginning of a trip to your country?

In the Future

 

In the future, everyone will have the same _______ and the same _______
In the future, everyone will be very ______ from the starchy diet
In the future, everyone will be very ______ from not having enough to eat
In the future, it will be next to impossible to tell ____ from _____, even in bed
In the future, _____ will be super masculine and _____ will be ultra-feminine
In the future, _____ of us will be mentally ill
In the future, there will be no ______ or spiritualism of any sort
In the future, the psychic arts will be put to practical _____

In the future, we will not think that nature is ________
In the future, the _______ will always be the same
In the future, no one will _____ with anyone else
In the future, there will be an _______ war
In the future, ______ will be expensive
In the future, all material items will be ______
In the future, everyone's ______ will be like a little fortress
In the future, everyone's ______ will be a total entertainment center

In the future, everyone but the wealthy will be very ______
In the future, everyone but the wealthy will be very ______
In the future, everyone but the wealthy will be very ______
In the future, ____ will be so good that the printed word will function as an art form only
In the future, people with boring ______ will take pills to relieve the boredom
In the future, no one will live in ______
In the future, there will be mini-_____ going on everywhere
In the future, everyone will think about _____ all the time

In the future, political and other decisions will be based completely on ______ ______
In the future, there will be ______ which will produce a religious experience in the user
In the future there will be groups of wild ______, living in the wilderness
In the future there will only be paper ______ which will be personalized
In the future, there will be a _______ society

In the future, everyone will only get to go ______ once a year
In the future, everyone will stay ______ all the time
In the future, we will not have ______ for leisure activities
In the future, we will only work one ___ a week
In the future, our ______ will be shrivelled up, but our _____ will be bigger
In the future, there will be starving ______ everywhere

In the future, people will live in _____
In the future, no one will be able to afford _____
In the future, the helpless will be _____
In the future, everyone will have their own style of way-out ______
In the future, we will make love to ______, anytime, anywhere
In the future, there will be ____ much going on
That no one will be able to keep _____ of it

Writing about a big personal change

 Yellow things are errors - what do you think is wrong?

A big change essay 

Near the end of my bachelor degree, I started to worry about what i would do after. I basically had to choose between three options which were: Look for a job, do my civic service or continue my study with a master degree.   

I chose to go further with my study by doing my master degree in engineering. The commutes to the new school were terribly long, about 5 hours every day. In addition to that, the lessons were lot more theorical than my bachelor’s one, which was quite boring for me. 

 

Fortunately for me, when the Covid strike and the lesson were given online. So, I had a lot more of free time during the last year of school. In the last weeks of my study, a friend gave me the address of an office where I could do my civic service. The job was closely related to my studies and not far from where I live. The only problem was, that I had to start working before the final presentation of my master thesis. It led to have a two really stressful weeks starting a new work while at the same time I was preparing my thesis PowerPoint. At the end, I successfully got my master degree and carry on with my new work.  

And something I didn’t know before was by starting the civic service right after my studies allowed me to be paid at a higher rate than if I had waited one month. With that extra money I could go to an international school to improve my English.

Okay let's correct these

A big change 

Near the end of my bachelors degree, I started to worry about what I would do after. I basically had to choose between three options which were A) to look for a job, B) do my civil service or C) continue my study with a masters degree.  

 

I chose to go further with my studies by doing my masters degree in engineering. The commutes to the new school were terribly long - about 5 hours every day! In addition to that, the lessons were lot more theoretical than my bachelor’s lessons had been, which was quite boring for me. 

 

Fortunately for me, when  Covid struck, the lessons were given online, which saved me a lot of travel time. As a result, I had a lot more free time over the last year of school. 

In the last weeks of my study, a friend gave me the address of an office where I could do my civil service. The job was closely related to my studies and not far from where I live. The only problem was that I had to start working before the final presentation of my masters thesis. It meant having two really stressful weeks starting a new job at the same time I was preparing my thesis PowerPoint. In the end, I successfully got my masters degree and carried on with my new job.  

And something I didn’t know before was that starting the civil service right after my studies allowed me to be paid at a higher rate than if I had waited one month. With that extra money I was able go to an international school to improve my English.

Pictures

 

Past simple and past continuous practice

 

Past simple and past continuous practice

Past tenses and talking about habits

Writing about holidays

 

Writing - My Last Holiday (A2)

My last holiday...

Intro

When did you go?

Where did you go?

How long did you go for?

Who did you go with?

P2

What were your plans? What did you decide to do?

What did you see? Who did you meet? What did you eat? How was the weather?

P3

What was the best thing you saw or did?

Was anything really amazing?

Was anything disappointing?

Would you go there again?

Useful language

It was rainy, sunny, cold, warm, chilly, freezing...

The highlight of the trip was...

We saw... 

We visited...

quite touristy

very popular

quite disappointing

On the first day we...

On the last day we...

Put the words into the correct gaps

the historic      holiday    trip    sacred temples    The owner      twin room

hostel     visit   local foods    touristy   history

My last ___1____ was a three-day trip to Thua Thien Hue in Vietnam. I always wanted to go there, so in the summer of last year, I decided to take a ___2____ to Hue with my family.

We booked a small ____3____- near Hue Walking Road. We stayed in a ____4____, which was clean and had full amenities. ___5____ was very friendly; he showed us good restaurants, attractions, and how to deal with sellers in the market. We tried ____6____ such as Bun Bo Hue, Banh Xeo, Banh Bot Loc, etc. The food in Hue is cheap and amazing; I thought that I could eat it all day!

We did some ____7____ things too. We visited Hue Capital and had a chance to learn more about Vietnam's ____8____. The architecture is very majestic and beautiful. We also went to Thien Mu Pagoda. It is one of the most ___9_____ in Vietnam, so we prayed for health and happiness and wished everyone good luck. In the evening, we walked across ___10____ Trang Tien Bridge. It was so beautiful at night; there were a lot of people walking there. 

It was three amazing days. I felt so relaxed and hope to ___11____ more places in Vietnam.

Submitted by anhteeny96 on Fri, 01/03/2024

Writing - holiday advice B1

Questions

Watch Emma's class:

How long time?

Questions are NOT actually hard to form. For example:

Who?
When?
What?
Why?
How?
Where?
Which?

That's 7 questions made with only a single word.

Start with some basic (pre-int) grammar:

Questions help us manage a conversation - steer it, control it, make it GO where we want it to.

If we find it tricky to articulate questions, it can be really hard to even think of them, and to develop a conversation fully. It ends up getting stuck in the mud.

Even native speakers may be quite limited in using different forms of question. 

Think of questions as the keys that open conversations up. Or the crane that lifts you out of the mud.

Insert the missing words, then use these questions to interview someone you don't know very well.

• 
  
• 
  
  

When in conversation, be explorative and proactive. Prompt your conversational partners. Try to anticipate and direct the subject matter by asking interesting questions that lead the conversation somewhere interesting.

A well-known English teacher I once knew always used to ask her students this question at the end of a lesson:

"What questions did you ask today?"

Prompts like these elicit further input from a conversational partner. Use them!

Really?
Interesting.
Go on?
Okay.
Yes?
Great.

Continue.
Did you really?
Perfect.
Nice.
How terrible.
Oh.
And?
Then what?
So?
Crazy!
Amazing.
No!?
You're kidding, aren't you?
Funny. Keep talking!
Good one.
Good for you.
Of course.
No way!?
Ha ha.
Yeah.
Yeah?
Yeah!

Echoing:

Another easy way to keep the other person talking is to echo the key thing they're saying, like this:

A) I'm going to the movies tonight.

B) The movies?

 In this dialogue the speakers echo one another to maintain clarity. Guess the words in the gaps.

A) I'm going to the movies tonight.

B) The _______?

A) Yes, I'm going to see a new anime movie.

B) An _______ movie?

A) It's a new one from Studio Ghibli.

B) ___________! I love those movies.

A)You _____ them?

B) Of course - what's the title?

A) The _____ - I'm not sure. I'll google it.

B) Okay ______ it. If I haven't seen it, could I come along?

A) Sure, you can _____ _____... Here it is - it's called Ponyo.

B) ______ - I don't think I've seen that one.

A) Well, it's on a 6.45 tonight.

B) ______. Great. I'm keen to come.

A) _____! Let's meet here at school at 5.15 and then walk down to the cinema.

B) _____. Sure thing, I'll be here.

Check

A) I'm going to the movies tonight.

B) The movies?

A) Yes, I'm going to see a new anime movie.

B) An Anime movie?

A) It's a new one from Studio Ghibli.

B) Studio Ghibli! I love those movies.

A)You love them?

B) Of course - what's the title?

A) The title - I'm not sure. I'll google it.

B) Okay google it. If I haven't seen it, could I come along?

A) Sure, you can come along... Here it is - it's called Ponyo.

B) Ponyo - I don't think I've seen that one.

A) Well, it's on a 6.45 tonight.

B) 6.45. Great. I'm keen to come.

A) Great! Let's meet here at school at 5.15 and then walk down to the cinema.

B) 5.15. Sure thing, I'll be here.

Don't just do these exercises on your own. Try them right now with real people! Set yourself a simple goal. When you're talking in class and outside of class today, make sure you try using some new interjections and prompts, and try echoing a bit.

Instead of saying "okay" and "yes" try saying something less predictable. You will find this helps the other person feel more heard.

Common grammatical blocks

Watch Emma's class:

How long time?



What kind of question is it? 

a yes/no question, a subject question, a tag question, a rhetorical question, an indirect question...?


Can you imagine a world without ... ?
What kind of life would we have lived without ... ?
You mean ... might not be the only ... ?
How could that possibly be better than ... ?
Wouldn’t you say ... ?
Is there anything you want to add ... ?
Does it make sense that ... ?
It was said ... , wasn’t it?

What's the general purpose of these questions?

 Practice your question formation here

And here

Reacting to questions

When someone asks you a question, try commenting on the question before you answer it.

Oh, it's funny you should ask me that because...

I was wondering if you'd ask me that.

I wasn't expecting that question.

That's an interesting question.

I like the question.

That's a tricky one

This question makes me feel happy because...

I was hoping you'd ask me that.

Oh not that question!

Hmmm. Let me think about that.

Can you be more specific?

Can you rephrase the question?

What do you mean exactly?

Good question.

Tough question.

Nice question.

Subject question formation:

SIMPLE PRESENT QUESTIONS:

QUESTION WORD	AUXILIARY VERB	SUBJECT	MAIN VERB
Where	do	you	work?
What	does	Martha	think	about the project?
How	do	you	like	your new apartment?
How many kids	does	Bob	have?

SIMPLE PAST QUESTIONS:

QUESTION WORD	AUXILIARY VERB	SUBJECT	MAIN VERB
How	did	they	learn	English so fast?
When	did	you	get home	from work yesterday?
What	did	the manager	think	about your idea?
Where	did	you	buy	that T-shirt?

PRESENT CONTINUOUS QUESTIONS:

QUESTION WORD	AUXILIARY VERB	SUBJECT	MAIN VERB
What	are	you	doing	at the moment?
Why	is	he	ignoring	me?
What time	are	we	meeting up	for dinner?
Who	is	she	dating	now?

PAST CONTINUOUS QUESTIONS:

QUESTION WORD	AUXILIARY VERB	SUBJECT	MAIN VERB
Who	were	you	talking	to on the phone?
What	was	Jim	doing	when you called?
Why	were	the children	eating	candy before dinner?
How	was	he	feeling	after the surgery?

PRESENT PERFECT QUESTIONS:

QUESTION WORD	AUXILIARY VERB	SUBJECT	MAIN VERB
How much money	have	you	spent	on clothes this month?
How long	has	your teacher	worked	at this school?
What	have	they	been doing	all day?
How long	has	the client	been waiting	for their order?

FUTURE QUESTIONS:

QUESTION WORD	AUXILIARY VERB	SUBJECT	MAIN VERB
Who	will	you	invite	to the party?
What	will	your parents	think	about your plan?
When	are	you	going	to clean your room?
Why	is	she	going	to quit her job?

MODAL QUESTIONS:

QUESTION WORD	AUXILIARY VERB	SUBJECT	MAIN VERB
What	would	you	do	if you had a million dollars?
How	could	we	improve	our English?
Where	should	I	go	on my next vacation?