Aprender ingles gratis con La Mansion del Ingles. Un podcast para mejorar la gramatica, el vocabulario y la pronunciacion del inglés. Una leccion del ingles con ejemplos y ejercicios. Learn English free with podcasts from La Mansion del Ingles. Improve your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. This English lesson contains examples and exercises.

Podcast Transcription

 Hi and welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast from mansióninglés.com, recorded for April 2010.

Thank you for all your positive feedback and comments on last month’s newsletter. Gracias por sus amables palabras sobre el cuaderno del mes pasado. Especialmente en nuestra página de Facebook. Si quieres seguirnos y participar en la página, busca La Mansión del Inglés desde tu cuenta de Facebook.

OK, let’s practise some irregular verbs. Vamos a practicar algunos verbos irregulares en inglés.

Cuando hablo Español, es muy difícil para mi saber cuando hay que decir el verbo ser o estar. En inglés es más fácil porque solo hay un verbo. Es el verbo to be.

Escucha y repite: be – was/were – been

El verbo golpear is to beat – beat – beat – beaten

El verbo llegar a ser is  to become - become – became – became

Empezar to begin – begin - began – begun

Morder bite – bite - bit – bitten

El verbo soplar blow - blow – blew – blown

El verbo romper is to break - break – broke – broken

Traer/llevar is to bring - bring – brought – brought

Edificar is to build - build – built – built

Quemar is to burn. There are two possible forms for the past and participle of burn. Hay dos formas posibles – burnt – BURNT or burned – BURNED. Repeat: to burn – burn - burnt / burned - burnt / burned

Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir el segundo y tercero forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo.

be –                                 was / were – been

beat –                              beat – beaten

become –                         became – became

begin –                             began – begun

bite –                               bit – bitten

blow –                              blew – blown

break –                            broke – broken

bring –                             brought – brought

build –                              built – built

burn –                              burnt / burned – burnt / burned

Now let’s practise some idioms. Idioms are spoken or written sentences where the meaning is not always obvious from the individual words used.

For example,

My hands are tied means I have no choice. I can’t help you my hands are tied. Repeat: I’m sorry, my hands are tied. Tied – atado - to tie. Repeat: I’m sorry, my hands are tied. I’m afraid my hands are tied.

Hold your horses means that you are doing something too fast and they would like you to slow down. Hold your horses, will you! Just wait a minute. Repeat: Wait a minute, just hold your horses.

If you swallow your pride, you admit that you have been wrong about something or someone. You accept that you have to do something that is embarrassing. Swallow means tragar in Spanish and pride is orgullo. Repeat: Swallow your pride and apologise to her. I had to swallow my pride.

People who burn the candle at both ends work all hours of the day and night. They get little sleep or rest because they are busy until late every night and then get up early every morning. Repeat: She's burning the candle at both ends studying for her exams.

If something fishy is going on, then something suspicious is happening. If something is going on, algo esta pasando What’s going on? ¿Qué ocurre? Fishy can mean suspicious. For example: There are strange noises coming from David’s bedroom. Something fishy’s going on in there. Repeat: There’s something very fishy going on.

If someone is a dark horse, they are secretive and might surprise you. Like a dark horse in a horse race. Repeat: She’s a dark horse that one!

If you kill two birds with one stone you do two things at once. To kill is matar and a stone is una piedra.I saw some friends when I was in Madrid visiting my parents. I killed two birds with one stone. Repeat: I killed two birds with one stone.

A can of worms is a situation which causes a lot of trouble for you when you start to deal with it. A can is una lata and worms are gusanos. So, if you open up a can of worms, you cause a lot of trouble for yourself. Repeat: If you do that, you open up a can of worms. You’re opening a can of worms, you know.

If you let the cat out of the bag, pones en el aire lo que esta escondido. You reveal a secret or a surprise by accident. I was trying to keep the party a secret, but Sarah went and let the cat out of the bag.

Repeat: Don’t say anything. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t let the cat out of the bag.

If someone looks like a million dollars, they look fantastic. Wow! I love that dress, you look like a million dollars. Repeat: You look like a million dollars.

When you travel by ship and stop at different places you go on a cruise. C-R-U-I-S-E. Be careful of the pronunciation. Listen: cruise, like Tom Cruise. Repeat: cruise. I’m going on a cruise. Notice the expression to go on. We go on holiday, we go on a trip, on a business trip. Repeat: I’m going on a trip to Barcelona. When are you going on your Mediterranean cruise? How often do you go on business trips?

Going on a trip is when you go somewhere, stay there and come back (on business or on holiday). It’s probably more common to say “go on a trip” than “travel”. Trip is a countable noun, travel is uncountable. “I went on a trip to Paris” – no se dice XI went on a travelX)

When you travel by plane you take a flight. Flight is a noun. The verb is to fly. Repeat: What time’s your flight? Did you find a cheap flight? Who are you flying with?

A tour is when you visit several places following an organised plan. Last year we went to Egypt on a package tour. A package tour is when the flights, hotels, transportation etc are included in the price.

When you travel a long way by sea, or in space, it’s called a voyage. “They embarked on a voyage across the sea.” – se fueron de viaje por mar.

When you travel from place to place by road, train etc. you go on a journey. Un viaje en train is a train journey. How long is the journey from Barcelona to Valencia? Repeat: How long is the journey from Barcelona to Valencia? Is it a long journey?

Now listen to, and repeat, the following holiday collocations:

Sea - deep blue sea, calm sea, cold sea, rough sea (a rough sea is agitado, picado the opposite of a rough sea is a calm sea)

tour - coach tour, sightseeing tour, package tour , guided tour (if you go sightseeing, haces turismo. – I went sightseeing in Paris. The sights are the famous and interesting things in a city. What are the sights in Paris? The Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Champs-Elysees. To see them is to go sightseeing. Repeat: go sightseeing. I went sightseeing in London. I saw all the sights. What are the sights in London? What’s the name of that big clock? Big Ben. What’s the name of that famous department store where the Queen goes shopping? Harrods. What’s the name of that big house where the Queen lives? Buckingham Palace. Where do David and Victoria Beckham live? Beckingham Palace!

holiday - summer holiday, package holiday, beach holiday, adventure holiday

trip coach trip (what’s the difference between coach and bus? A coach is usually for longer journeys, maybe from one city to another city. A bus is for travelling inside a city, for shorter journeys. A coach is usually more comfortable than a bus.) Repeat: We’re going on a coach trip. It’s cheaper to take a coach than a train, boat trip – a boat trip on the River Thames, day trip, business trip

resort (a resort is un centro turístico) - holiday resort, tourist resort, seaside resort, popular resort (seaside means playa, costa. I love going to seaside resorts – but not in England, the weather’s terrible!)

beach – a crowded beach (a crowded beach es una playa llena de gente Repeat: It’s crowded. The beach is crowded. It’s a crowded beach.) golden beach, sandy beach (sand is arena, so the adjective sandy means arenoso) repeat: a sandy beach, deserted beach (deserted means desierto o abandanado)

In the advanced section this month, we practised writing cleft sentences. Listen to the examples and repeat the sentences.

It was Bram Stoker who wrote Dracula in 1897.

It was in 1897 that Bram Stoker wrote Dracula.

It was Dracula that Bram Stoker wrote in 1897.

What people really love is Baloo the bear.

Baloo the bear is what people really love.

It is Baloo the bear that people really love.

What this bear is called is Baloo.

Baloo is what this bear is called.

This bear is called Baloo.

Most sightings have been reported in the Indian Jungle.

It is (in) the Indian Jungle where most sightings have been reported.

The Indian Jungle is where most sightings have been reported.

Suddenly the bear appeared out of nowhere.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the bear appeared.

Right there in front of me danced the cuddly bear.

It was the cuddly bear that danced right there in front of me.

What I didn’t expect to see in the jungle was a dancing bear.

A dancing bear was the last thing I expected to see in the jungle.

In the business English section this month, there was an exercise to practise abbreviations in business English. Listen to the abbreviations and try to say what they stand for before I say them.

AGM - Annual General Meeting

CEO - Chief Executive Officer

COB - Chairman Of the Board

a/c account

ASAP - as soon as possible

ATM - automated teller machine (Am. English - cash dispenser, Br. English – cashpoint)

Attn - for the attention of

cc - copy to

Co - company

COD - cash on delivery

dept - department

ETA - estimated time of arrival

GDP - gross domestic product

GNP - gross national product

Inc - incorporated

Jr - junior

Ltd - limited company

N/A - not applicable

NB - Nota Bene (Latin - it is important to note)

PA - personal assistant

p.a. - per annum (Latin - per year)

p.w. - per week

Plc - public limited company

p.p. - per pro (Latin - used before signing in a person's absence)

PR - public relations

p.s. - post scriptum (Latin – in Spanish posdata P.D.)

pto - please turn over

qty - quantity

R & D - research and development

re - with reference to

RSVP - repondez s'il vous plait (French - please reply)

VAT - value added tax

VIP - very important person

Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. Remember to visit our online shop where you can find our business English cd, our First Certificate cd for the Cambridge FCE exam, our audio cds and many more. Just go to mansioningles.com and click on the cds on the right side of the home page. You can also follow us on Twitter, just search for MansionTwit, and visit us on our Facebook fan page.