This is the page where you can find extra help and review of the grammar we are studying in class.
Wednesday 16th December
Passive Voice
Passive voice is used when we either dont know the subject of the sentence, or the subject of the sentence isn´t necessary to say.
ex. These toys are made in China.
‘These toys’ is not the subject of the sentence. We don’t know who the subject is. We don’t know who makes the toys, and it isn’t important to the sentence.
You form the Passive Voice with:
to be + past participle
*Remember that our normal sentence structure in English is (subject)(verb)(object). Essentially you are saying ‘This does this’. However, in Passive Voice, we can’t do that because we are telling what happens to a thing, we are not telling what that thing does. So, for example…
These toys are made in China. <—- The toys are NOT doing the action ‘make’. The toys are receiving the action, and because we don’t know who or what the subject is, we must use Passive Voice!
Thursday 19th November
Today in class, I discovered that we are not very good at telling time.
Things to remember:
15 minutes past the hour is said «a quarter past» or «a quarter after» the hour because it is one quarter of the way around the clock.
30 minutes past the hour is «half past» the hour because it is half way round the clock.
45 minutes past the hour is «quarter to» or «quarter till» the hour because there is only a quarter of the clock left to complete the hour.
*If a time is BEFORE half past, you can say the time as the number of minutes past the hour. For example, 3:20 could be said as «twenty past three»
*If a time is AFTER half past, you must count the minutes until the hour and say it is that many minutes «to» or «till» the hour. It doesn´t matter which one you say. For example, 5:40 could be said as «twenty to six» or «twenty till six» because there are 20 minutes remaining until we reach the hour.
**You can always say the time as just two numbers if you really can´t remember, although you´ll sound more intelligent if you can use these terms. For example, 8:23 could be said as «eight twenty-three».
Here I have added a couple links for you to practice telling time:
Video Explanation of Telling Time
Tuesday 10th November
NEED TO vs. DON´T NEED TO
Last week we started a new unit: Future transport (pg. 22). We will be talking about means of transport that are either real now, or could possibly be real in the future. The grammar that we studied on Tuesday was the use of need to and dont need to.
REMEMBER!!!!
need to is used for things that are necessary or obligatory.
ex. You need to be a pilot to fly a plane.
but…
don´t need to is used for things that are not necessary, but that you can do if you want.
ex. You don´t need to wear a helmet to drive a car. (it isn´t necessary to wear a helmet to drive a car, however if you wear a helmet, you can still drive the car.)
DO NOT confuse «dont need to» with «musn’t»–THEY ARE NOT THE SAME!!
If you have any questions about need to, don´t need to, must, or mustn´t, leave a comment on here or make a note and ask me in class!
CEIP Ramón Gómez de la Serna´s Bilingual Blog 