PRESENT PERFECT, ESE TIEMPO VERBAL TAN ODIADO....

PRESENT PERFECT

Se forma con el have o has + past participle ( -ed de verbos regulares o 3ª columna de verbos irregulares)

Para mí y para muchos el tiempo verbal más complicado de todos.

¿por qué? Pues porque lo usamos de diferente manera en inglés que en castellano. 

Vemos una frase. Si decimos:

I’ve lived in L’Hospitalet for 5 years. 

¿seguimos viviendo en L’Hospitalet o no?  Si lo traducimos de forma literal  “He vivido en L’Hospitalet durante 5 años”  indica que ya no vivo allí.  En inglés no es así. Esta frase significa que  llevo 5 años viviendo en L’hospitales y todavía vivo allí.

Los diferentes usos de Present Perfect en inglés nos dan una pista. algunos son como en castellano pero otros no.

Uso 1

Usamos el Present Perfect para hablar de que hemos hecho una acción pero no decimos cuanto.

I’ve eaten snake.

Si dijera cuando hice la acción no podría usar el present perfect y debería usar el past simple ya que digo una marca de pasado. Osea, cuando pasó la acción es un tiempo acabado.

I ate snake in my last travel to china last year.

Uso 2 

con palabras como just para decir que has hecho algo recientemente.

I don’t want to eat anything I’ve just had a sandwich.

Uso 3

relacionados el pasado con el presente. Esto lo hacemos dando a entender que empezamos ha hacer una acción que todavía sigue de alguna manera ahora.

I’ve written three books since I worked as a writer.

He escrito tres libros hasta el momento de ahora.  El tiempo no se ha acabado: desde que empecé hasta ahora. Si podemos añadir esto a un tiempo verbal casi seguro que será un present perfect.

Veamos por ejemplo si es un escritor que ha muerto. El escritor escribió libros hasta que murió por lo tanto la acción de escribir no llega hasta el momento de ahora sino que sólo hasta que murió.

Shakespeare wrote twenty novels.  no podríamos decir   Shakespeare has written twenty novels.

Éste es el uso que es más diferente al castellano. Hay que ver si el tiempo se ha acabado y por tanto usaremos un past simple. Si no se ha acabado,  usaremos entonces un Present Perfect.

Hay palabras que van casi siempre con Present Perfect aunque no siempre. Digamos que se asocian con un  95% de probabilidad.

Estas palabras son: already, yet, for, since, just.

La posición en las frases es distinta

I’ve already eaten in the new fashion restaurant. (delante del verbo principal eaten. Traducción: ya)

I haven’t eaten in the new fashion restaurant yet. (en frases negativas al final. Traducción:todavía)

Have you eaten in the new fashion restaurant yet? (en frases interrogativas al final. Traducción: ya)

I’ve eaten in the new fashion restaurant for five weeks (para indicar el periodo de tiempo que hemos hecho algo, casi siempre se pueden contar, menos frases hechas como “for along time”, etc.. Traducción: durante)

I’ve eaten in the new fashion restaurant since last week. (para indicar el punto en el pasado desde el que se ha hecho la acción hasta ahora. Traducción: desde)

La palabra “ago” se usa sólo para Past Simple. Nunca en Present Perfect.

Difference between “too” and “enough”

OLIVER

TOO - Excess

too + adjective	This shirt is too expensive. It costs $30 and I have only $25.
too much + uncountable noun	I drank too much water; now I really need to go to the bathroom!
too many + countable noun	She put too many eggs into the cake. The recipe said 3 and she used 5.
verb + too much	He complains too much. He has such a negative attitude.

 

 ENOUGH- Sufficiant 

enough + noun (countable or uncountable)	We don’t have enough people for a soccer team.We have 8 people and a team needs at least 11.
adjective + enough	Sorry kid, you’re not old enough to buy alcohol. You’re 19 and the minimum age is 21.
verb + enough	I don’t exercise enough. I need to go to the gym more than once a month.

A Present perfect love story

    

Is texting killing language?
Click on here 
to read about this issue.




For basic vocabulary look at this web:  mobile phone vocabulary. 

Nice hands-free set!!!

In this web you will find lots of listening, vocabulary, games... Click on here

Now, watch this clip.

• What answers to questions 2, 4, 5 and 6 do people in the video give?
• What is the video maker's opinion of mobile phones?

Linkers and transition expressions

Below you will find a chart with some of the most frequently used linkers and transition expressions, which you are encouraged to use instead of „and‟, „but‟ or „so‟ whenever possible. Notice that free standing linkers are followed by a comma, whereas conjunctions and prepositional phrases have a different structure.

At the end of the post w¡you will find the solutions of all the exercices.

                

1. Fill in the gaps with a linker from the box. Notice that more than one answer is possible.

a. I‟d like to find a better job. _______________, I don‟t have much experience.

b. _______________ the weather was fine we didn‟t go to the beach.

c. We need clear guidelines. _______________, we need well laid out activities.

d. I revised for my exams successfully and I met my deadlines. _______________, I managed to pass all my subjects.

e. Car manufacturers have to make impressively powerful cars while, _______________, governments are asking for more “green” cars that pollute less.

f. We were unable to get funding and had to abandon the project _______________.

g. I didn‟t find the session interesting. _______________, I got bored to tears.

2. Fill in each blank with a word from the box. Each word can only be used once. You need to pay attention to both meaning and grammatical function. There is one extra word.

despite however

furthermore unless

because of since

if although

(1) Although it is clear that every effort has been made to clarify the test‟s instructions, many students will fail to understand them. So, (2) __________________ the basic simplicity of the test itself, many students fail. (3) ____________________ the high failure rate, an even simpler test is being devised. (4) ___________________ that does not work, perhaps we should give up testing in the present way altogether. (5) ____________________ we find some way of testing the students satisfactorily, we will have to deal with complaints from both students and parents. (6) ______________________, the lack of an adequate test would probably lead to loss of government support. (7) ______________________ we cannot afford to lose this support, we must absolutely make sure that the new test is effective.

Reading Comprehension: Answer the questions based on the preceding text.  _____1. According to the passage, the current test does not work because of a. its basic simplicity. b. the difficult instructions. c. the failure rate.

_____2. How does the writer describe the current test? a. Simple b. Clear c. Satisfactory _____3. Why is an effective test necessary a. To keep things simple. b. To keep students working. c. To keep government support.

KEY

EX. 1

a-I‟d like to find a better job. However,/Nevertheless, I don‟t have much experience.

 b-Although/Though/Even though, the weather was fine we didn‟t go to the beach.

 c- We need clear guidelines. Furthermore,/In addition,/Moreover, we need well laid out activities.

d- I revised for my exams successfully and I met my deadlines. Therefore,/As a result, I managed to pass all my subjects.

e- Car manufacturers have to make impressively powerful cars while, on the other hand,governments are asking for more “green” cars that pollute less.

f-  We were unable to get funding and had to abandon the project as a result.

g-  I didn‟t find the session interesting. On the contrary, I got bored to tears.

EX 2

(1) Although it is clear that every effort has been made to clarify the test‟s instructions, many students will fail to understand them. So, (2) ____despite_______ the basic simplicity of the test itself, many students fail. (3) ____Because of_______ the high failure rate, an even simpler test is being devised. (4) _______If__________ that does not work, perhaps we should give up testing in the present way altogether. (5) _____Unless_________ we find some way of testing the students satisfactorily, we will have to deal with complaints from both students and parents. (6) _____Furthermore______, the lack of an adequate test would probably lead to loss of government support. (7) _______Since__________ we cannot afford to lose this support, we must absolutely make sure that the new test is effective.

Reading comprehension:

b-c-a

Después de  muchas redacciones corregidas, he visto que muchos errores vienen dados por signos de puntuación. Hacer un buen uso de ellos ayudará a enteder que es lo que estamos queriendo decir y muchas más frases tendrán sentido.

Here you are going to read an extract from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary about punctuation:

1. CAPITAL LETTER:
      a) the first letter of a sentence: Football is very popular in Britain.
      b) for countries, nationalities, languages, religions, names of people, places, events, organisations, trademarks, days, months, titles: Portugal, Africa...
      c) for titles of books, films...: Matrix.
      d) for abbreviations: AVE, AIDS...

2. FULL STOP:
      a) the end of a sentence: I'm going for a walk.
      b) sometimes after an abbreviation: Mr. Potter ,  Dr. White
     
3. COMMA:
      a) between items in a list: I need some peas, butter, sugar and eggs.
      b) to show a pause in a long sentence: They didn't want to eat before I'd arrive, but I was an hour late.
      c) when you want to add extra information: The woman, who I'd met last week, waved as she went past.

4. APOSTROPHE:
      a) for missing letters: don't, I'll, it's...
      b) for possessives: Paul's bike.
      c) Note: words ending in S don't need another S added: James' house

5. HYPHEN:
      a) to join two words together: blue-black