Modal verbs with Signs

There's no better way to learn modals than by playing games and doing cool activities like the ones that you will find on this webpage. Click on the image below.

Murder Mystery Game

Ready to solve a pretend murder? Would you like to be a detective like the famous Sherlock Holmes?

Play with Ashlie and Stephen from Word on the street (Learn English - British Council) and follow the clues. Then, do the activities to revise the grammar. Pay attention to the contrast between Past Perfect and Past Simple here.

Merry Christmas!!!

Once again, enjoy the Magic in Christmas Ads!




As usual, the music is awesome! This time, a version of The Beatles' Golden Slumbers by the band Elbow. Here are the lyrics and the video.

[Verse 1]

Once there was a way
To get back homeward
Once there was a way
To get back home

[Chorus]

Sleep, little darling, do not cry
I will sing a lullaby
Golden slumbers fill your eyes
Smiles awake you when you rise
Sleep, little darling, do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
And I will sing a lullaby

[Verse 2]

Once there was a way
To get back homeward
Once there was a way
To get back home

[Chorus]
Sleep, little darling, do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby

Dream it possible

Can you answer these 10 questions about your dreams and goals? (Click here for more information)

1. Are they written down?
2. Are they your goals?
3. Do they have a deadline?
4. What is the cost and are you willing to pay it?
5. What help will you need to accomplish your goals?
6. Are you focused on your goal?
7. Are your goals adaptable?
8. Do your goals stretch your limits?
9. Do  you believe in your goals?
10. What did you do today?

How to make your dreams come true.  (Click here  for more information)                          

1. PART 1  Making a Plan
   1.       Be specific about your dream.
   2.       Turn your dream into a burning desire.
   3.       Turn your burning desires into goals.
   4.       Plan.
   5.       Take action now.
   6.       Set short-term goals.
   7.       Review your progress regularly.
   8.       Enjoy the journey.
   
   
   PART 2  Staying Motivated
   1.       Visualize success.
   2.       Maintain your confidence.
   3.       Don't forget to make time for relaxation.
   4.       Learn from failure.
   5.       Accept constructive criticism along the way.
   6.       Make the necessary sacrifices.
   7.       Remove any hurdles that stand in your way.
   8.       Drop the excuses.
   9.       Reevaluate your dream if you can't achieve it.

Dream it possible - A song for those who are inspired by their dreams.

Dream It Possible - DELACEY

I will run, I will climb, I will soar
I'm undefeated oh oh
Jumping out of my skin, pull the chord
Yeah I believe it
The past is everything we were
don't make us who we are
So I'll dream, until I make it real
and all I see is stars
It's not until you fall that you fly
When your dreams come alive
you're unstoppable
Take a shot, chase the sun
find the beautiful
We will glow in the dark
turning dust to gold
And we'll dream it possible
Possible
And we'll dream it possible

I will chase, I will reach, I will fly
Until I'm breaking, until I'm breaking
Out of my cage, like a bird in the night
I know I'm changing, I know I'm changing in
into something big
better than before
And if it takes, takes a thousand lives
then it's worth fighting for
It's not until you fall that you fly
When your dreams come alive
you're unstoppable
Take a shot, chase the sun
find the beautiful
We will glow in the dark
turning dust to gold
And we'll dream it possible
Possible
From the bottom to the top
We're sparking wild fire's
Never quit and never stop
The rest of our lives
From the bottom to the top
We're sparking wild fire's
Never quit and never stop
It's not until you fall that you fly
When your dreams come alive
you're unstoppable
Take a shot, chase the sun
find the beautiful
We will glow in the dark
turning dust to gold
And we'll dream it possible
Possible
And we'll dream it possible

Comparison Game

Do you like playing basketball? Try to score a basket. Click on the ball and start playing. Good luck!

All that we share

This Danish TV Ad is a heartwarming reminder that our perceived labels do not define us. If we look below the surface, we can find common ground with those we perceive as most different to ourselves. (The Huffington Post)

PEBAU 2016-17

PEBAU (Prueba de Evaluación de Bachillerato para el Acceso y Admisión a la Universidad).

Read the Guidelines for your exam PEBAU 2016-2017 carefully. You will find all the different types of questions that you could be asked in the sections Comprehension, Use of English and Writing.

Guidelines for PEBAU  2016-2017

Ready for Christmas?

Let's enjoy the Magic in Christmas Ads!

By watching this first ad, you'll find out how important it is to learn English.

In this year M&S Christmas advert we can see how Mrs Klaus saves the day.

Coming home for Christmas is the best gift of all.

Or maybe the greatest gift is your time.

How about being your favourite self?

If your train is delayed on your journey home for Christmas, all is not lost!

Christmas is a time for dreaming, even for Buster!

And a time for sharing despite Mog's mess.

What’s the meaning of Christmas?

And to you, what does Christmas mean to you? 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Leonard Cohen's speech

LEONARD COHEN

PRINCE OF ASTURIAS AWARD FOR LITERATURE 2011

Considered one of the most influential authors of our time, 

his poems and songs have beautifully explored the major 

issues of humanity in great depth.

The Canadian singer-songwriter and poet, who passed 

away on 7 November aged 82, made an acceptance 

speech where he paid tribute to Spain, both for the 

influence that Gabriel Garcia Lorca had on his poetry and, 

movingly, on how a Spanish flamenco player was the 

person who gave him the confidence, and the six 

chords, to play music.

Full speech here.

One day in the early sixties, I was visiting my mother’s house in Montreal. Her house was beside a park and in the park was a tennis court where many people come to watch the beautiful young tennis players enjoy their sport. I wandered back to this park which I’d known since my childhood, and there was a young man playing a guitar. He was playing a flamenco guitar, and he was surrounded by two or three girls and boys who were listening to him. I loved the way he played. There was something about the way he played that captured me. It was the way that I wanted to play and knew that I would never be able to play.

And, I sat there with the other listeners for a few moments and when there was a silence, an appropriate silence, I asked him if he would give me guitar lessons. He was a young man from Spain, and we could only communicate in my broken French and his broken French. He didn’t speak English. And he agreed to give me guitar lessons. I pointed to my mother’s house which you could see from the tennis court, and we made an appointment and settled a price.

He came to my mother’s house the next day and he said, “Let me hear you play something.” I tried to play something, and he said, “You don’t know how to play, do you?”

I said, “No, I don’t know how to play.” He said “First of all, let me tune your guitar. It’s all out of tune.” So he took the guitar, and he tuned it. He said, “It’s not a bad guitar.” It wasn’t the Conde, but it wasn’t a bad guitar. So, he handed it back to me. He said, “Now play.”

I couldn’t play any better.

He said “Let me show you some chords.” And he took the guitar, and he produced a sound from that guitar I had never heard. And he played a sequence of chords with a tremolo, and he said, “Now you do it.” I said, “It’s out of the question. I can’t possibly do it.” He said, “Let me put your fingers on the frets,” and he put my fingers on the frets. And he said, “Now, now play.”

It was a mess. He said, ” I’ll come back tomorrow.”

He came back tomorrow, he put my hands on the guitar, he placed it on my lap in the way that was appropriate, and I began again with those six chords – a six chord progression. Many, many flamenco songs are based on them.

I was a little better that day. The third day – improved, somewhat improved. But I knew the chords now. And, I knew that although I couldn’t coordinate my fingers with my thumb to produce the correct tremolo pattern, I knew the chords; I knew them very, very well.

The next day, he didn’t come. He didn’t come. I had the number of his, of his boarding house in Montreal. I phoned to find out why he had missed the appointment, and they told me that he had taken his life. That he committed suicide.

I knew nothing about the man. I did not know what part of Spain he came from. I did not know why he came to Montreal. I did not know why he played there. I did not know why he he appeared there at that tennis court. I did not know why he took his life.

I was deeply saddened, of course. But now I disclose something that I’ve never spoken in public. It was those six chords, it was that guitar pattern that has been the basis of all my songs and all my music. So, now you will begin to understand the dimensions of the gratitude I have for this country.

Everything that you have found favourable in my work comes from this place. Everything , everything that you have found favourable in my songs and my poetry are inspired by this soil.

So, I thank you so much for the warm hospitality that you have shown my work because it is really yours, and you have allowed me to affix my signature to the bottom of the page.

Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen.

Used To

We use ‘used to’ to talk about things that happened in the past – actions or states (PAST HABITS) – that no longer happen now.

Affirmative: Used to + infinitive

• Tom used to smoke a lot 5 years ago.
• There used to be a great restaurant here, but it closed a few years ago.

Negative: didn’t use to + infinitive

Mary didn’t use to like vegetables when she was a little child.

Interrogative: Did you use to + infinitive …?

Did he use to be thinner when he was younger?

There is no present tense equivalent of ‘used to’. To talk about present habits we use the present simple and an adverb of frequency (usually, always, often, never, etc.)

I usually study at the library. 

You can practise the "USED TO" structure with this song:

"Did they use to talk?"

We Don't Talk Anymore  by Charlie Puth (feat. Selena Gomez)

Chorus 1. Fill in the gaps

[Charlie Puth:]

We don't talk anymore, we don't talk anymore
We don't talk anymore, like we .......... to do
We don't love anymore
What was all of it ..........?
Oh, we don't talk anymore, like we .......... to do

Order the sentences

I wish I would have known that wasn't me
I just heard you found the one you've been looking
Why I can't move on
Cause even after all this time I still wonder
Just the way you did so easily
You've been looking for

Chorus 2. Cross out the odd word

Don't wanna to know
What kind of dress you're wearing on tonight
If he's holding onto you so very tight
The way that I did before
I overdosed it
Should've known your love was not a game
Now that I can't get you out of my brain
Oh, it's just such a shame
That we don't talk anymore

Chorus 1

Fill in the gaps

[Selena Gomez:]

I just .......... you're lying next to somebody
Who knows how to love you .......... me
There must be a good reason that you're ..........
Every now and .......... I think you
Might want me to come show up at your ..........
But I'm just too .......... that I'll be wrong

Don't wanna ..........
If you're looking .......... her eyes
If she's holding onto you so .......... the way I did before
I overdosed
Should've known your love was a ..........
Now I can't get you out of my ..........
Oh, it's such a shame

[Charlie Puth & Selena Gomez:]

That we don't talk anymore (We don't, we don't)
We don't talk anymore (We don't, we don't)
We don't talk anymore, like we .......... to do
We don't love anymore (We don't, we don't)
What was all of it for? (We don't, we don't)
Oh, we don't talk anymore, like we .......... to do

Like we .......... to do

Chorus 2

Some more practice here and here.