Goodbye Marcos and hello Jihad!
Sorry to hear that you weren’t feeling well Marcos… I hope you’ve caught up with your work now. I have enjoyed reading your posts and wish you all the best with your job, studies and English!
It’s great to meet you Jihad! Like the other blog readers, I am looking forward to hearing about your work in the pharmacy, the people you meet and area you live in. I’ve never been to Egypt, so would love to see some of your photos.
Let me know which bits of English you want me to write about. Marcos asked for feedback on his writing and help with multi-word verbs and reporting speech. I’ll finish the reporting speech topic by pointing out some useful exercises on the BBC LE site. The first exercise practises moving the tense in the reported clause one step back into the past; this is called tense backshift and is a way of showing that the reporting is in a different time from the original speech. We don’t always move the tense one step back; sometimes when the report is talking about something that is still true or which hasn’t happened yet, the form of the verb is unchanged. For example:
Yesterday Clara said, “I’m going into town with my friends this weekend”.
Yesterday Clara told me that she is going into town with her friends this weekend.
Grammar challenge: reported speech - quiz 2
So far, we have mainly talked about representing speech in writing. So for a change, here is an exercise on the use of be like for reporting speech orally. You may remember in my first post that Clara talked about youth English and mentioned the use of be like to report speech:
Keep your English up-to-date 4: be like
I really look forward to hearing from you Jihad. Have a great weekend!
Rachel
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Comments on the comments:
Rabail (from the UK) – Advise is a verb and advice is a noun. Hope this helps!
Filippo (from Italy) – The Cambridge Grammar of English is available from amazon.co.uk from £18.40 plus delivery charges. You could try the Cambridge University Press website for information about stockists in Italy.
Comments
Hello Rachel The whole idea of this blog is great. Could you help me with following problem? In which case is right to use THAT'S o.k. and in which one IT'S o.k.? Or similarly:you can do THAT/you can do IT. It seems that there is a slight difference there. Is there any golden rule to use? Looking forward to your response. (sorry for my poor English. Jirka
Hi Rachel, What you said about not changing the tense on some ocassions is new for me. Sometimes I tended to do it unpurposely and then I thought that it was a mistake. Now I know that it isn't. The use of be like in reporting speech requires more practice to me. Thanks a lot. Best wishes, Cris
Hello Rachel, I hope you're doing great. I consider myself as being one of your dedicated students,however, I don't usually comment for some reason. I am pleased to tell you today that the BBC LE website has improved my English greatly, and as usual I appreciate your great job. On the other hand, I'd like to tell you that I have been to Egypt before. I actually have spent some time there, and it's a wonderful country, so, you should go there, and I am sure you'll enjoy it. I started studying English when I was there at the American University in Cairo. But now, I practice on my own, and of course by visiting the BBC LE. Best wishes to you and your family, Abdisamad
Hello Rachel! I´ve just loved Clara´s walk to the shop. Your neighbourhood is lovely and the buildings are very cute :-). By the way, I took a look at your friends´school website. Leeds seems to be a nice place to study English :-). Good night, Ana Paula.
Hello, Reachel! i am happy that you are going to continue teaching us here on the BBC free land for this month and hope we will get more interesting lessons .Thank you
Hi everyone I am just going to try and use the words "advise and advice" in sentences to see if I can use them correctly. First I am going to use the word advise. My doctor advised me to take these tablets twice a day. I would like you to advise me how to use this machine as I am using it for the first time. I would advise you not to take that road as it is very dangerous. Taking advice from my teacher was helpful in enhancing my interview skills. Advice was available for people with disability from the local counsellers in university. I am planning to take advise from citizen advice bureau to resolve this issue with the shop keeper as the shop keeper does not want refund for the faulty washing machine I recently bought from them. Please give me your advice on these sentences as your advice will help me to use these words correctly in the future. It will be greatly appraciated. Have a nice day everyone. Rabail UK
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