Thursday Recap

Guest post by our classmate Omar Lamuño - Thanks Omar, Good Luck in whatever you do next, we'll miss you in the class - Liam.

Hello guys 

Last Thursday was an important day for me because it was my last English class in ECM College. I started my English course with Liam in pre-intermediate and I finished with him in upper intermediate. The time fly!  Another cycle is about to begin. It was a great English trip. So for me it's a pleasure to write this review.

We talked about “services” and what kind of verbs we can use according to this places list:

• Bank: You can say, “PUT money IN or TAKE money OUT” Also you can use: Deposit/ Lodge or withdraw.
• Shopping Centre: GO shopping 
• Supermarket: DO the shopping “I need to DO the shopping”
• Restaurant: EAT and DRINK
• Hairdresser´s: HAVE / GET your hair CUT / DONE.

The objective of making this list was to understand and identify WHEN we should use HAVE SOMETHING DONE.  

We use have something done to mean another person does a SERVICE for us. 

Take a look at these two sentences. What is the DIFFERENCE in meaning between them?

“I cut my hair”

“I had my hair cut”

“I cut my hair” means that I do it myself. This expression is a common mistake when you really want to say, “I had my hair cut” this means: someone cuts my hair for me (in this case it´s probably a hairdresser) 

The grammar for this is pretty simple:

HAVE or GET + OBJECT+ PAST PARTICIPLE 

Now, we know the grammar structure, It's time to practice. The teacher gave us the next list:

• Dentist
• Garage
• Tailor
• Dry cleaner
• Barber
• Printer´s 
• Hospital
• Photographer 

We asked our partner if we needed to use one of these services and then implement "Something HAVE DONE" formulated questions and answers. In my case next week, "I'm going to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned"

In the second part of the class we had a lesson about QUANTIFIERS (all, very, most) It is very common to have problems with the use of quantifiers. Thus, by way of example, I mention here some cases. The examples below were conducted in class.

Use ALL (general) or ALL (of) The  (specific)+ a plural or uncountable nouns 

• All dogs go to the heaven.
• All fruit contains sugar.
• All smog is dangerous 
• All (of) the students are beautiful 
• All (of) the sand is white in the Bahamas 

 ALL can be used before most verbs, but after “be”

• The audience WERE ALL disappointed with the film.

Here's a common mistake 

1. What music do you like?
2. ALL (wrong) 

ALL kinds of music (right)

Use MOST to say the majority. MOST  (general) MOST OF (specific)

• Most people like electronic music  (general) 
• Most of the rhythms in tropical music are good for dancing. (Specific)

 Attention:  It is a common mistake to add (THE) at the beginning of the sentence.

ALL of / MOST of + object pronoun

• ALL of US are happy to be here.
• MOST of THEM were difficult.

We also talked about the correct use for NO, NONE, ANY

1.Use NO + a noun 

E.g. I have NO idea.

2. Use NONE in short answer for zero quantity.

E.g. How much tea do you want?  NONE. I don´t like it

3. NONE + of (noun object pronoun)

E.g. NONE of my friends are going to the party

4. Use ANY (and anything, anyone, etc.) and + Verb to mean it doesn´t matter when, who, etc.

E.g. what time is good today? ANY time (all times - It doesn´t matter what time)

And at the end of the class we checked some expressions with BOTH / NEITHER / EITHER

BOTH = Two positive ideas

E.g. Both John and Jim love chicken / John and Jim both like chocolate 

EITHER (options)

EITHER Sonia or Maria can go to the supermarket.

EITHER Japanese or Indian are ok for me.

EITHER black or white will be fine for me.

BOTH / NEITHER + of (object pronoun)

E.g. BOTH of US are very happy

E.g. NEITHER of THEM go to the party 

I hope this information has been useful. Once again thank you Liam for your classes, your advice and the funny English examples.

See you guys, 

Omar.