UNIT 1: IT IS NICE TO BE NICE

Grammar: Tenses part 1

Los tiempos más básicos son presente, pasado, futuro y condicional.

1- Present: Yo soy, yo estoy, yo voy, yo vengo, yo cojo, yo veo, yo tengo, yo encuentro, yo he (verbo haber)

2- Past: Yo fui/era, yo estuve/estaba, yo fui/iba, yo cogí/cogía, yo vi/veía, yo hube/había (verbo haber)

3- Future: Yo seré, yo estaré, yo iré, yo cogeré, yo veré, yo tendré, yo encontraré, yo habré (verbo haber)

4- Conditional: Yo sería, yo estaría, yo iría, yo cogería, yo vería, yo tendría, yo encontraría, yo habría (verbo haber)

PRESENTE

Como ya sabes, para poner los verbos en presente sólo hay que usar el verbo tal y como lo conocemos, menos para
"He/she/it" que le añadiremos una "s".

· I play chess very well

· You like computer games
· We have a friend in common
· He sees my sister every day
· She sees my sister every day
· It works very well

Aparte de eso, tenemos el verbo "to be" (ser - estar) que lo deberíamos tener dominado ya:

I am nice
You are nice
He is nice
She is nice
We are nice
You are nice
They are nice

PASADO
A algunos verbos le pondremos "ed" detrás para convertirlos en tiempos pasados (verbos regulares), mientras que
con otros tendremos que saber su forma del pasado (verbos irregulares)

Regulares

· I watched TV for 2 hours

· I enjoyed the party
· I played very well
· I searched for it on the internet
· He dropped his wallet
· She called me yesterday
· They suggested going to the beach
· She married him in 1991

Irregulares

· She saw my parents two days ago (see)

· I went to the cinema (go)
· He understood it perfectly (understand)
· He became a teacher (become)
· He wrote three novels (write)
· It began raining suddenly (begin)
· I found a coin in the street (find)
· You ran a good race! (run)

El pasado de los verbos corresponde a la segunda columna de la lista de verbos irregulares. El verbo "be" también es
un poco raro en pasado en tanto que es el único que varía:

I was
You were
He was
She was
It was
We were
You were
They were

· Occasionally, I need to find out the past tense of a verb, but I look at the second column and I can’t find it. Why
does that happen?

FUTURO

Para formar oraciones en futuro, sólo tendremos que poner un "will" delante del verbo. El verbo irá en su forma
base, sin ninguna marca de nada.

· I will do it when I have time

· She will do it when she has time
· He will finish it tomorrow
· We will talk about it later

Fijaos que sería entonces "I will be", ya que el nombre del verbo es "be", no "am, is, are..."

CONDICIONAL

Para formar oraciones en condicional, sólo tendremos que poner un "would" delante del verbo. El verbo irá en su
forma base, sin ninguna marca de nada, como con “will”.

· I would do it if I had time

· She would do it if she had time
· He would finish it if he could
· We would talk about it

Fijaos que sería entonces "I would be", ya que el nombre del verbo es "be", no "am, is, are..."

Exercises
1.- Put the verbs in the correct tense. There might be more than one correct answer.

· People ____________(be) nicer than you _________ (think).

· I ____________ (buy) a new car last year

· I __________ (see) you yesterday on my way to the supermarket

· Every time she ____________ (use) my computer, it ____________(stop) working

· Yesterday, he ____________ (say) that he _____________ (come) over soon

· You have to promise that you _____________ (make) your bed when you get back home

· He _________ (work) every day but Sundays

· I _____________ (help) you, but I don’t know how to solve the problem either.

· I’m going to travel to France tomorrow. I ___________ (phone) you when I __________(get) there

· Don’t worry, I’m sure everything ________________ (be) alright in the end

· It __________ (be) my birthday yesterday, and my best friend ________(forget) it

· I ________(have) to go now. I ____________ (help) you if I had time

· If you _______________ (travel) around the world, you ______________ (meet) a lot of cool people

· There _____________ (be) an accident some day if they don’t repair the road

· I ____________ (read) a lot of books last summer and I __________ (enjoy) them all.

· Last year, while I ________ on holidays, I _________ (see) a huge whale

· I _______ (be) sure you __________(find) tomorrow’s match really exciting

· They _______ very thoughtful, so they _____________ (understand) your problem

· Yesterday I ____________ (watch) a movie and I _________ (stay) awake all night

· I ______________ (tell) you the truth, but it ____________(seem) you are not prepared to know yet.

· If we _____________ (hurry) up, we __________ (get) there on time. The film has not started yet

· The police ___________ (find) out that the thief ________ (be) a former police officer

He ________________ (try) to set up a new business, but he __________ (be) not very successful.

I _________________ (like) to become a teacher in the future.

2.- Translate the sentences below into Spanish

Esa es una muy buena idea

Era muy tarde

Creo que él ganará la carrera

Ella lee muy rápido

Me compraría un ordenador nuevo

Yo elegiría el ordenador que vimos en la primera tienda

Él pensaba que ella no estaba interesada en él

Ellos no creen que acabaremos el trabajo a tiempo

No acabé el libro porque era demasiado aburrido

Él tiene una familia muy exigente

Tuve un perro cuando era niño, pero se lo dimos a mis vecinos

3- Complete the second sentence so that it has the same meaning as the first sentence.

This is an exam exercise. The missing words will

probably be the same words that you would need in
Spanish to complete the sentence, so translating is
recommended.

I often go cycling with my friend Dan at the weekends.

My friend Dan usually ………………………………… cycling with me at the weekend

We have to find a flat before we can look for a school

We can’t look for school until we …………………… a flat

They’ve just won the match

They ……………………………..the match a few minutes ago
Everyone in our family enjoys camping holidays
In our family, all of us ……………………..camping holidays

The new zoo restaurant has been open for a week

The new zoo restaurant …………………………… last week

Why don’t you borrow a book from the library?

If I were you, I ………………………. a book from the library

The King School has been open for five years

The King School …………………………………… five years ago

Listening
1- Listen to a psychologist talking about the influence your position in the family has on your personality. What is
each type of child like?
Audio file
Oldest children:
Middle children:
Youngest children:
Only child:

2- You're going to hear Jessica and her teacher Adam talking about how she did in her four weeks on "The
Pretenders. Listen to each week and answer the questions.

Week 1
a) What did Adam and Sally think of Jessica?
·
b) According to Adam, what two problems did Jessica have?
·
c) What three things did Jessica have to do this week?
·
d) How did she feel at the end of the week?
·
Week 2:
a) How did Jessica change her image?
·
b) What did she learn to do this week?
·
c) What did she have to do at 10 Downing Street?
·
d) Was she successful? Why?
·

Week 3
a) What did Adam think about Jessica?
·
b) What did she have to do this week?
·
c) What mistake did she make?
·
d) What did Adam say that Jessica needed to do?
·

Week 4
a) What was Jessica's final test?
·
b) How did she feel about it?
·
c) Did the interview go well for Jessica? Why?
·
d) Did the judges realize that Jessica wasn't a professional reporter?
·
e) Would Jessica like to become a reporter? Why?
·

LISTENING 2

Listen and complete these sentences with the words that you hear in the conversation
Audio file

· Some children were rather ____________ at the start of the holiday because they didn’t know each other. By the
last day they were having such a ____________ time they didn’t want to go home

· The children expected the tour of Hardwick Castle to be ____________, but the guide entertained them with lots of
_____________ stories about its history

· Sam felt _____________ the first time he went horse-riding but he soon became a ___________ rider even though
he fell off a few times.

· Tara jumped into the swimming pool with all her clothes on! I thought she was a _________ girl. What a
____________ thing to do

LISTENING 3

1- Say whether the following sentences are true or false

Audio

Erica thinks Ben should see Liam more often

Ben enjoys travelling by road to see Liam

According to Ben, the train costs too much

He says that Liam wants to visit him at weekends

Ben says that Liam and he are still good friends

Erica is sure that Liam knows how Ben feels

Speaking
1.- Tell us about a situation where you felt

· Angry · Disappointed · Radiant

· Surprised · Embarrassed · Relieved

2.- Describe one of these people

· Your favourite teacher

· Your best friend

· A character from The Simpsons

·Your favourite sportsman

3- What happens when these people are…?

Open-minded Hard-working Careless

Generous Naughty Energetic

Fit Cowardly Understanding

2- Describe your English teacher. What did you do in class with him?

3- Which is the most difficult to be: a child, a teenager, a middle-aged person or an elderly person? Why?
 Speaking: Exam tip!
When describing a picture, focus on these
questions:

· How many people are there?

· Where are they?
· What things can you see?
· Where are those things?
· What are they doing?
· How are they feeling?
· Why are they doing that?

Describe the pictures below

 Writing: Exam tip!
· Remember to cover the three points you are given.
·Try to write between 35 and 45 words
· Write your message as clearly as possible

Writing
Your teacher has asked you to write a story. The title of your story is “the happiest day of my life”.

Write your story in around 100 words.

You had arranged to meet your cousin at the station, but now you can’t go. Write an e-mail to Robin, your English
friend. You should

· Ask Robin to meet your cousin for you

· Say why you can’t go

· Describe your cousin