SOME VERBS REQUIRE AN OBJECT IN ENGLISH:

Some verbs must have an object in English. These are called transitive verbs. The object is the person or thing affected by the action described by the verb. For example, many people translate the sentence ‘me gusta’ with ‘I like’. This is really bad. What you must employ is an object as ‘like’ is a transitive verb. For example, you could say ‘I like it/her/the film/the sunny day’ etc. So please avoid just saying ‘I like’ or ‘I like a lot’ or ‘I don’t like’. Similarly, we must not say ‘the film, I like’. The word order is wrong so we must say ‘I like the spray’ (subject, verb, object).

Common transitive verbs that students have issues with include:

To like
To miss (extrañar)
To enjoy
To bring
To give
To send
To leave
To make
To owe
To tell
To show
To use

http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

COMMON PHRASAL VERB: 'TO BE PUT OFF'

This means that something or someone discontinued your desire for something or someone.

Examples: 1. The hair in my soup put me off wanting to eat the soup. 2. The girl's strange habits put me off her. 3. They no longer want to vote for that candidate. His speech put the voters off.

http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

¿POR QUÉ TE FALLAS CON TU INGLÉS?

Aquí está un consejo para aprender el inglés más facilmente que damos a los alumnos de nuestros clases de inglés online (vía skype).

Minimice su esfuerzo estudiando menos gramática:

Teniendo una base de gramática, la mejor y más divertida forma de mejorarla es conversando y conversando mientras alguien corrige tus errores gramaticales como en nuestras clases de inglés online. Hablar correctamente de temas entretenidos e interesantes es mucho más divertido que estudiar solo con los libros de gramática.
http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TO 'TAKE/HAVE A BATH' AND 'TO BATHE' (BAÑARSE):

There is often confusion in our skype English classes concerning the verb 'to bath'. Well, although it exists in British English we don't usually use it. According to wordreference.com 'bañarse' can mean 'to take/have a bath/shower'. When you 'take or have a bath' it is what you do when you want to relax or wash yourself usually at home or in a hotel. When you do this you lay down horizontally in the water in a bathtub (bañera). In British English the verb 'to bathe' (meterse al agua) is usually employed when you want to go in the sea, in a lake, river or in a swimming pool. The primary objective is enjoyment and not to wash yourself although some people may bathe to wash themselves especially in less developed countries. 'Bathing' is usually done outside whilst 'to have a bath' is usually done indoors. I hope that helps. http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'FUN' AND 'FUNNY':

In our skype English classes students often have issues with 'fun' and 'funny' The difference of the use of these two words is very subtle. When a mistake is made, nearly always students say ‘funny’ (‘e.g. ‘we had a funny time at the shopping centre’) when they should be saying ‘fun’ and not the other way round. This is because using ‘fun’ is a lot more common than ‘funny’. Thus if you have a doubt about which one to use after reading the following, always go for ‘fun’. More than likely you will be correct. Now on to the grammar:
‘Fun’ is both an adjective and a noun whilst ‘funny’ is an adjective only.
‘Fun’ refers to when you have a good time or when you enjoy yourself (cuando 'lo pasas bien' o 'cuando te disfrutes'). For example, we could say ‘visiting my friend was fun’ or ‘it was fun to go skiing’ or ‘the party will be lots of fun’. Using ‘fun’ as a noun (remember, it is uncountable) we could say ‘we had fun at the event’ or ‘we will have fun on holiday’.
‘Funny’ is employed when a situation or person makes you laugh. For example, ‘the comedy is funny’ or ‘the clown is funny’.
In British English slang ‘funny’ can also mean ‘strange’, ‘odd’ or ‘bizarre’. For example, ‘the man painted his nails and that is a funny thing to do’.
Many times the translation of ‘fun’ as an adjective is ‘divertido’ in Spanish, whilst ‘funny’ could be ‘comico’.
http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

MODAL VERBS SHOULDN'T HAVE A PREPOSITION AFTER THEM:

In our Skype English classes many students incorrectly say ‘he can to come at 8’ or ‘they must to go running this evening’. However, all modals except for ‘ought to’ are followed by the base form of a verb (or infinitive) with no preposition after it. Some examples:

• I should go to visit them.
• I think it will rain tomorrow.
• Things could have been better.
• Someone may have seen them.
• They might be home tomorrow.
• They may be late.
• They would have known if they had gone to the seminar.
• He can come by anytime.
• You must get that project finished.
• I shall hand-in the paper on time.

Remember that modal verbs can’t be switched from tense to tense like normal verbs. For example, we cannot say ‘we musted do the homework’ or ‘I will must to study Norwegian’.

Also, modal verbs cannot appear together in the same sentence. Many people say ‘I will can go out tonight’. This is very incorrect. Since ‘will’ and ‘can’ are both modal verbs we need to use ‘to be able to’ after ‘will’. So the correct sentence would be ‘I will be able to go out tonight’. This would translate as ‘Yo podré salir esta noche’.
http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AFTER AND AFTERWARDS:

The English word ‘after’ is used in the sense of ‘when something or someone has happened or will happen’ as in the sentences:
1. They will arrive after 18h.
2. She will get his chance after Melanie gets her opportunity.

In both sentences you can find that the word ‘after’ is used in the sense of ‘when something has happened or will happen or if someone has done or will do something’ and thus the meaning of the first sentence would be ‘They will arrive once 18h will happen/has happened’. The meaning of the second sentence could be ‘she will get his chance once Melanie’s opportunity has happened’.
However, the word ‘afterwards’ means ‘after that’ or ‘after something happens’ but it is used when no object follows. For example:
1. The concert finishes at 17h. I will arrive afterwards (after that/after ‘the concert’ happens).
2. She forgot to arrive on time. She made an apology afterwards (after that/after ‘her unpunctuality’ happens).
Remember that ‘afterwards’ cannot take an object, ever! So we cannot say ‘I will see you afterwards the concert’ or ‘she will have lunch afterwards giving the speech’. In these cases we’d use ‘after’, thus:
‘I will see you after the concert’ or ‘she will have lunch after giving the speech’.
Unfortunately, with native speakers, there is no doubt that many speakers readily also use after without an object too. So some people will say ‘I will arrive after’ or ‘she made an apology after’. We would say that it’s more correct to use ‘afterwards’ here.
http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

IS 'STOP' FOLLOWED BY THE INFINITIVE OR BY THE GERUND?

 In English 'Stop' is normally followed by a gerund. When we stop doing something it means the verb in the gerund is the thing that we ceased to do. It can mean 'stop forever' or 'stop at that moment':
- My mum came home so I stopped playing on my PS4.
- I stopped smoking for health reasons.
- I had had plenty so I stopped drinking.

'Stop', more rarely, can be followed by an infinitive. In this case, we stop an activity in order to do what is indicated in the verb in the infinitive.
- I stopped to rest for a few minutes.
- He was shopping and she stopped to get a bite to eat.
http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

ESTUDIANTE APROBADO EXAMEN DE INGLÉS NIVEL C1 TUDELA EOI, ESPAÑA

Otro alumno aprobo el examen de la EOI nivel C1 inglés usando nuestras clases de inglés vía skype con profesores nativos.  http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

USES OF THE CONJUNCTION 'WHETHER':

In English, with the conjunction ‘whether’ we are not talking about if it will rain or be windy even though it is phonetically identical to ‘weather’. It is a difficult conjunction to understand. It often creates some confusion and students shy away from using it. It basically has 3 uses:

1. Implement it to mean ‘sin importar si’. For instance, ‘we will go to the match whether it rains or not’ would be translated by ‘sin importar si llueve o no, iremos al partido.’ We could also place the conjunction at the start of the sentence by saying something like: ‘whether you want to or not, you will do it’ meaning ‘sin importar si quieres o no, lo harás!’

The other 2 uses will be posted shortly! Thanks for reading!
http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

WHEN IS THE 'H' SOUND NOT PRONOUNCED IN ENGLISH:

 In general, there is no rule in English to tell you when to pronounce the 'h', but it is rarely silent. So you have to learn the exceptions as they come along. Usually they turn out to borrowings from French, like 'honest', 'honour', 'heir', 'exhaustion', 'Thailand', 'vehicle', 'ghost', 'ghetto' and 'hour'.
The words starting with a silent 'h', if preceded by the indefinate article must have the 'an' version. For example, we'd say 'an honest fellow'. Hope that helps.
http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

WHEN IS THE 'H' SOUND NOT PRONOUNCED IN ENGLISH:

 In general, there is no rule in English to tell you when to pronounce the 'h', but it is rarely silent. So you have to learn the exceptions as they come along. Usually they turn out to borrowings from French, like 'honest', 'honour', 'heir', 'exhaustion', 'Thailand', 'vehicle', 'ghost', 'ghetto' and 'hour'.
The words starting with a silent 'h', if preceded by the indefinate article must have the 'an' version. For example, we'd say 'an honest fellow'. Hope that helps. http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

MIXING COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES

Many of our English as a foreign language students use a comparative when a superlative should be implemented. For example, a student might say something like ‘tea is the more popular drink in England’. Obviously, the superlative ‘most’ must be used here (i.e. el más popular). As you can probably see, we can’t use ‘more’ since this is the comparative version. Thus, we should use ‘tea is the most popular drink’. http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

HOW TO TRANSLATE 'ME SUENA' INTO ENGLISH

‘Me suena la cancion’. Two good options for translating this phrase into English would be the following:
1. ‘The song seems/sounds familiar (to me)’
2. ‘The song rings a bell’

Like in ‘me suena’ the key thing is that you are not totally sure if you know the song or the object of the sentence. Naturally, there would be some doubt about the object. http://www.clasesinglesonline.com 

ENGLISH COMMON ERROR: DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'SHADE' AND 'SHADOW'

Now that much of Europe is experiencing a heatwave many people need to take refuge from the heat in the shade. In English, When we talk about being in the darker area where sunlight doesn't directly hit, we call this 'the shade'. This is uncountable so you can't say 'a shade' in this context. If you want to speak about a specific darker area outside which doesn't directly catch sunlight, we call this 'a shadow', a countable noun. For example we can say 'the shadow of the tree is very big' or 'if I go into the sunlight, I will have a shadow'. So use 'shade' in a general sense and 'shadow' in a specific sense. Hope this helps. http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

'ASIGNATURA' IS 'SUBJECT', NOT 'SIGNATURE'

When we are talking about studying in English students often translate ‘asignatura’ (for example, ‘maths’, ‘history’…) with ‘signature’. Unfortunately, we have a false friend here. A ‘signature’ is a person’s name written in a distinctive way as a form of identification in authorizing a cheque or document or concluding a letter. This is normally translated to Spanish by the word ‘firma’. ‘Asignatura’ would be ‘subject’ such as history, maths or linguistics. For example, ‘the subjects I will study for my A-levels are biology, chemistry and physics’. Instead of ‘subject’ you could also use the words ‘discipline’, ‘field’, ‘branch of study’ or 'area'. http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

Use of ‘health/healthy/healthily’

First, health means ‘salud’ so we can translate ‘el sistema de salud’ with ‘the health service’. We can also say ‘do you have good health?’ for ‘¿Tienes buena salud?’.

Second, and this is the most problematic area with our English students, is that ‘saludable/sano’ means ‘healthy’ and these are all adjectives. Thus, we can say ‘the food is healthy’ or ‘it is healthy to go hiking’. However, since ‘sano’ or ‘saludable’ can also be adverbs such as in sentences like ‘como sano/saludable’, students often say ‘I eat healthy’. Unfortunately, this is incorrect and we must implement the adverb form of the word in English which is ‘healthily’. Therefore, the correct sentence would be ‘I eat healthily’.

Lastly, if we want to say something will do your body good we would often inplement the following phrase: ‘it’s good for your health’. This sentence could refer to the person/people you are conversing with or it could talk about the health of people in society in general.
http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

'UN RESPONSABLE' SHOULD NOT BE TRANSLATED BY 'A RESPONSIBLE'

‘Un responsable’ is a false friend when translated from English to Spanish. You cannot translate this literally as the word ‘responsible’ is not a noun in English but it is an adjective. Thus, if we wanted to say ‘mi responsable es muy patiente conmigo’, we must not say ‘my responsible is very patient with me’. In fact, it needs to be ‘my manager is very patient with me’. So use the word ‘manager’ or ‘boss’ when you are talking about the person who leads or manages at work. Obviously, there are other translations of ‘un responsable’ such as ‘a supervisor’ or ‘a superior’.
Remember, in English, ‘responsible’ is an adjective so we could say ‘my manager is very responsible’.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE USE OF 'WHO' AND 'WHOM'

I know a lot of our students in our Skype English classes perhaps wrongly get taught this in school in Spain and elsewhere but I'm not sure if it should be focused on due to the fact that 'whom' has become somewhat redundant in the English language. Very rarely do you hear it. Anyway, Azucena in Switzerland asked me about this the other day during our class so here is the explanation:
'Whom' is an object pronoun. It should be used to refer to the object of a sentence. While 'who' is a subject pronoun which refers to the subject. If you're stuck, you can try this rule: if the pronoun can be replaced by he or she, then use who. If the pronoun can be replaced by him or her, then use whom.

he/she = who
him/her = whom
Examples:
Who/Whom wrote the letter?
He/she wrote the letter. Therefore, 'who' is correct.
Who/Whom should I vote for?
Should I vote for him/her? Therefore, 'whom' is correct.
As indicated in the beginning, the reality is that ‘whom’ is nowadays not used very much. We tend to use ‘who’ for everything now. Have a great day!
http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

PREPOSITION WITH EASTER IS 'AT'

Like with Christmas (e.g. 'at Christmas carols are sung') in English the preposition that goes with Easter is 'at'. For example, 'in the UK at Easter it is very common for large chocolate eggs to be given. These are called Easter eggs'. Remember, the preposition 'during' could also be employed. http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'FLOOR' AND 'GROUND':

Common error from our Skype English classes: difference between 'floor' and 'ground'. This error is aimed at those who have around level B1. The word 'ground' will refer to 'suelo' but when you are outside or outdoors. 'Floor', however, is for 'el suelo' when it is inside or indoors. For example, 'we will cover the lounge floor with this elegant carpet' and 'the ground is wet and muddy. I hope the sun will dry it'. In the image the 'ground' includes that area around the pool whilst a 'floor' can be seen just through the open doors by the leather sofas. Hope that helps.

COMMON ERROR FROM OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES Is 'como' translated by 'as' or 'like'??

Our English students often have issues translating 'como'. Should it be 'as' or 'like' when not a question word?Even though there is some disagreement as to the use of these 2 words when translating ‘como’, the basic rule is that if the verb and subject come before ‘como’ then we should use ‘like’. So:

The structure of the sentence is normally: VERB + LIKE + NOUN / PRONOUN.

For example:

There are many beautiful cities in Spain like Salamanca and Toledo.

She speaks like her mother.

If the verb and subject come after

‘como’ then we should use ‘as’.

For example:

Nobody works as she does.

She sings as if it were the last day on earth.

They played football as they were.

In this context many times ‘as’ is replaced by ‘’like’ by native speakers, especially in American English. However, it doesn’t mean you should use ‘like’ in the immediate example above. We have just mentioned this detail so that you are aware that this piece of grammar isn’t always set in stone or black and white.

The exception to the rule above is that if ‘como’ is followed by a noun or pronoun and ‘como’ means ‘in the form of’ or ‘in the position of’ then we need to use ‘as’.

For example:

He works as a taxi driver (in the position of).

We use our garage as a workshop (in the form of).

http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

Difference between trip and journey (un viaje):

So our Spanish students learning English online with us have trouble translating the term 'un viaje'. Should it be a 'travel', 'trip' or 'journey'? Well it certainly shouldn't be 'a travel': we don’t say ‘I am going to do a travel’. However we can say ‘I am going to do a trip/journey’ or ‘I am going on a trip/journey' when saying 'me voy de viaje'. But there is a difference between ‘trip’ and ‘journey’. ‘Journey’ normally is used to indicate the movement between point A and point B. This could be a very long ‘journey’ of several days, months or even years. For example, ‘it’s a long journey from England to Argentina’ by boat. A ‘journey’ could also be a very short distance like your commute to work. For instance, we can say ‘my journey to work takes me just 10 minutes’. A weekend in Rome is composed of journeys (for example, the movement from your house to arrival at your hotel), but the whole experience is a trip. So, we normally would use ‘trip’ as a countable noun when the travel is not just a movement from point A to point B but includes activities like eating or meetings and/or sleeping. So ‘trip’ has the sense that the person would be staying in a place a certain amount of time. It is the whole experience of being away. Remember, travel is normally a verb (except terms like luxury travel or business travel) so if you don’t use it as a verb you must be very careful. The instances when you can use travel as a noun is when there is an adjective before it as in ‘luxury travel’ or ‘business travel’ or ‘OAP (old aged pensioner) travel’, for example. http://www.clasesinglesonline.com/

TRANSLATING ¡ESTÁ MAL VISTO! - common error by our English students

So another common error our English clients have trouble with is translating the term 'está mal visto'. No, we can't say 'it's badly seen'. In fact, a good option would be 'it's frowned upon'. For example, we could say 'management frowns upon employees socialising by the vending machine'. Happy Thursday! 

Problems that our Spanish speaking students have with the definite article 'the'

Happy new year and festive greetings! In English, when we are referring to the next or last time period in relation to the present, the definite article should be omitted. So ’el año que viene es 2015’. Thus, 2015 is the next time period after the present when we are talking about years. Due to this we don't say 'the next year' when referring to 2015. One must simply say 'next year'. Similarly, as we are in January 'el mes pasado', is December, would be 'last month' and never 'the last month' when referencing the month before the present month. Every one of our Spanish clients makes this error at some stage more than once so please be aware of it. Do text me if you have any doubts. Hope that helps.