Post April, 13th, 2009

Hey guys! What´s up? Did you have a good Easter? Did you get a lot of chocolates?

Well, today we´ll learn some good but confusing stuff.

Grammar

Do you know when using capital letters? No? So check it out!

Use Capital (T, S, B, etc.) letters for the following types of words:

* Days, Months and Public Holidays

Monday, January, Christmas

* Proper names of People and Places

Jack, Maria, New York, Germany

* Titles for People

Ms, Dr, General

* Nationalities and Regions (both nouns and adjectives)

Dutch, Swedish, Basque

* Titles of Works of Art (content words only)

The Last Day of Summmer, American Journal of Medicine

When to Double Final Consonants

The final consonant of a word is often doubled when adding -ed, -ing, -er, -est in the following cases:

* Double final "b, d, g, l, m, n, p, r and t" at the end of words:

rob - robbing
sad - sadder
big - bigger
travel - traveller
skim - skimming
win - winner
pop - popping
prefer - preferred
hit - hitting

* Double these final letters there is the following pattern "consonant - vowel - consonant" at the end of a word. For example: travel - 'vel' v - consonant - e - vowel l - consonant.
* Words of more than one syllable have their consonants doubled only when the final syllable is stressed.

begin - beginn ing BUT open - opening
defer - deferr ing BUT offer - offering

* When words have more than one syllable and end in 'l' British English always doubles the 'l', even in the case of unstressed syllables. American English, on the other hand, the 'l' is not doubled when the syllable is unstressed.

British English - travelled
American English - traveled
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Joke

Are you in the mood for some fun? ;)

Resolving to surprise her husband, an executive's wife stopped by his office. When she opened the door, she found him with his secretary sitting in his lap. Without hesitating, he dictated, "...and in conclusion, gentlemen, budget cuts or no budget cuts, I cannot continue to operate this office with just one chair."
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Word of the day

ATM

Have you ever heard of the word ATM or ATM machine? ATM means Automated Teller Machine. It is the machine where we are able to get money from our bank account without needing to get into the bank.
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Quote

What´s sucess? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.

Bob Dylan (1941- )

See you later, guys!

Post April, 7th, 2009

Hi guys!

Today we are going to have some new interesting stuff to study.

Expression

A Steal

This expression is a little confusing if you are a Brazilian student. Why? Well, simply because we have a similar expression in Portuguese that means exactly the opposite. I´ll explain it better...

In Portuguese when we are looking products to buy and we see an expensive one we say:
It´s a steal!!! It means that its price is much higher than it´s worth.

In English it´s the opposite. When we say that something is a steal, it means that it costs much less than it´s worth.

Ex.: I bought a television like that for U$ 200 last week. Here it is only U$ 80. It is a steal!!!
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Interesting Link

This is really cool, guys. There´s a website where you can read several texts of different areas with audio. Yeah, you can listen to it and practice your listening and speaking skills. It´s a Californian website.

Check it here!
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Grammar Tip

Our grammar tip today is something simple, but also interesting.
Do you know the difference between Afraid to and Afraid of? No? Learn it now!!!

When do we use afraid + infinitive (to climb, to say, to go, etc.) and when do we use afraid of + …ing form (climbing, saying, going, etc.)?

We use afraid + infinitive when we explain the fear itself:
Ex.: I am afraid to go out in the dark.
He is afraid to travel by plane.
They are afraid to cross the high bridge over the river.

We use afraid of …ing when we see an unwelcome result of an action:
Ex.: I am afraid of falling. (= I am afraid because I might fall.)
He is afraid of making a mistake. (= He is afraid because he may make a
mistake.)
They are afraid of getting lost in the forest. (= They are afraid because they
may get lost.)

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Business

Today we are going to learn some payment terms. It ´s very useful either if you travel abroad someday or if you shop online.

I'd like to pay (in) cash. - Gostaria de pagar em dinheiro.
I'll put it on my credit card. - Eu vou colocar no cartão.
Could you send me an invoice? - Você poderia me enviar uma fatura?
Can I put it on lay-away? - Posso colocar em lay-away*?

* Lay-away is a form of payment. However, rather than taking the item home and then repaying the debt on a regular schedule, as in most installment plans (parcelamentos), the layaway customer does not receive the item until it is completely paid for. There is typically a fee (taxa) associated with a layaway purchase, since the seller must "lay" (pôr) the item "away" (de lado) in storage until the payments are completed. In the event the customer did not pay the amount due, the item would be returned to stock and any payments would be forfeited (perda por não-cumprimento).

Hope you´ve enjoyed it!

See you soon!

A fresh start

Hi, guys!

I hope you enjoy this new blog. It´s meant to help you improve your English skills. I´ll write it as often as possible, but if you want to get an e-mail warning of the updates, click here.

To start our new blog let´s divide this post into parts.

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Slang
What´s a slang? It´s an informal word we use to express ourselves. Every language has its own slangs and they´re part of a country culture.

Today´s slang is:

Cheesy - barato, brega, pobre de aparência

That is really a cheesy looking outfit.
Esta é uma roupa muito brega.

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Today´s Grammar point

Do you know the difference between few and a few? No? So, check it here:

Few and A Few

We should use "few" in a negative sense and should use "a few" in a positive sense.

Example Sentences

I have few friends in Los Angeles. (The person would like to have more friends.)
I have a few friends in New York. (The person is happy she has friends and is pleased with that.)

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Today´s Quote

Do you know what a quote is? It´s a sentence told by someone. The idea of having a quote here is giving you the opportunity to get some refletion in English in order to exercise your brain a little more. :)

"Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new". (Og Mandino - 1923-1996)
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Word of the day:

Trap - verb -

Definition

to catch or be caught by being tricked; to be unable to move or escape.

Example Sentences

He trapped me to talk about our breakup.
I've been trapped by my boss when I was about to leave the office to ask me to work late.

See you soon!