MONDAY, THE HAPPIEST WEEKDAY!

Guest post by our classmate Ana Caroline Sardinha - Thanks Ana - Liam.


Today was a good day!

We had a lot of stuff to do. We talked about articles (A, an, the) and word pairs.

Liam showed us simple ways to identify and use articles properly. Basically, we have to consider that:

1-    You use undefined articles (A or AN) before words you didn’t have mentioned before in a conversation or writing.

2-    If you already mentioned the word use defined article (the), because it’s about specific thing.

3-    You have to be sure that the other person knows about what you are speaking.

Ex:

How was your holiday?

- It was grand!

Where did you stay?

- In a hotel.

Was the hotel expensive?

- Yeah, 1000 euro a night.

DANGER:

If I talk about things in general I NEVER NEVER NEVER use THE before them.

Ex.:

People don’t like Mondays.

Men never cry.

Woman like flowers.

There are a lot of rules that we can check in the book (p.142).

And what about word pairs? What’s the rule?

Unfortunately, it’s what sounds better! There are hundreds of words pairs you have to use like you learn and you’ll never know why. (Today, I started to keep more attention at my host mother and I am already hearing the word pairs. It’s like magic.)

SOME WORD PAIRS…

Bread and butter

Knife and fork

Bed and breakfast

Sooner or later

Once or twice (I liked this! I put it in a sentence this afternoon)  

More or less (quantities)

STEPS TO IMPROVE:

Liam highlighted steps to improve our speaking and to fix the use of articles.

1^st- We need to notice the mistake (He informs us every day)

2^nd – We need to pay attention to our speech and identify the mistakes (this week focus on articles)

3^rd- Ok! After this, what should I do?

It depends:

In class- it’s the best place to practice and make new experiences. We must try! If I make a mistake and I identify it, I have to correct.

With friends- Yes, maybe you can go back and try again.

Real life- NEVER STOP TALKING. If we identify our mistake, we don’t have to stop. Try the next time not to do the same. Remember Liam wizard, the frustration in this case can be good for our progress…

That’s it! Thanks guys.

IN MY OPINION!

I’m impressed how easy things can be, it depends on the perspective you adopt.

I have been a little bit apprehensive about the end of my course, but after I moved to this class and Liam started to show ways to improve skills I’m feeling more confident to continue studying by myself. I know it will be hard, but if I have focus it can be great! I’m enjoying the class and it’s very positive this experiment. I am feeling part of a group and I’m learning so much.