On Saturday we talked about giving advice. Imagine your friend is having problems with their car.
You could say to them:
"If I were you I´d get a new car"That´s the second conditional, which we saw yesterday. We use it to talk about what we would do in the other person´s position. Notice that we always use "If I were" and not "If I was".
Or, you could use should / shouldn´t:
"You should talk to a mechanic"
"You shouldn´t drive it"Using should before a verb in the infinitive means that the person speaking thinks it´s a good idea to do something. There is no obligation to do it.
Should, might, may, can, could and would are called modal verbs. Here are some useful things to remember about moday verbs:
- There is no change in modal verbs for talking about he, she and it. It´s I should, he should, we should.
- Modal verbs also function as an auxiliary in the sentence. That means that we don´t use extra auxilliaries like don´t, doesn´t or do. The negative of should is should not/ shouldn´t, and the question is "what should I do?"
- Modal verbs are always used before a verb in the infinitive, without to: I might go, we should do our homework, I can speak English.
- Many modal verbs have difficult pronunciation: would, could, should are pronounced /wud/kud/shud/ and might is pronounced /mait/.
Next, we looked at expressions with the verb to get. This verb is very common, and has many many different meanings. You probably already know about getting up in the morning, getting a job and getting married, and you might remember getting dressed from a few weeks ago.
We talked about:
Getting angry (get + adjective = to become)
Getting better (get + comparative = to become)
Getting to work (get + place = to arrive)
Getting on well with somebody (get + preposition=phrasal verb)
In the afternoon, we talked about fears and phobias...some people are afraid of wasps or spiders. Others are frightened of closed spaces. And some are terrified of English grammar.
Then we reviewed the present perfect (see earlier posts). Another way we use the present perfect is to talk about the duration of something.
"How long have you been afraid of heights?"
"I´ve been afraid of heights since I was a child"
A common mistake is to use the present simple to talk about the duration of something...this is not correct in English.
"I work here since 2006"
"I´ve worked here since 2006"Finally, we reviewed when to use present perfect, and when to use past simple.
We use present perfect when talking about an action or a time which continues until the present, and may continue in the future.
"Quentin Tarantino has directed many successful films"
- He is still alive, and will probably continue directing films in the present/future.
But...
- He is dead, he will not continue directing films.
- Past simple is common with expressions like yesterday, last year, ....years ago, in the past.
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