WRITING TIPS.

HELPFUL INFORMATION TO ENRICH 

YOUR WRITING PERFORMANCE.

 

USED TO, BE USED TO AND GET USED TO

‘used to + infinitive’ and ‘be/get used to’

People often get confused about the use of used to + infinitive and be/get used to + ‘ing’ form because they look similar. They are, however, completely different.

‘used to + infinitive’ 

We use ‘ used to’ to talk about things that happened in the past – actions or states – that no longer happen now.

• She used to be a long distance runner when she was younger.
• I used to eat meat but I became a vegetarian 5 years ago.

The negative is ‘didn’t use to’ and questions are formed with ‘Did you use to …?’
There is no present tense equivalent of ‘used to’. To talk about present habits we use the present simple and an adverb of frequency (usually, always, often, never, etc.)
e.g. I often eat at the Japanese restaurant in the city centre.

‘be/get used to’ 

If you are used to something, you are accustomed to it – you don’t find it unusual. If youget used to something or you are getting used to something you are becoming accustomed to it – it was strange, now it’s not so strange.

• I found Slovak food very strange at first but I’m used to it now.
• I’m getting used to driving on the right.

Both ‘be used to’ and ‘get used to’ are followed by a noun (or pronoun) or the gerund – the ‘ing’ form of a verb.

• I can’t get used to getting up so early. I’m tired all the time.
• He’s not used to the weather here yet. He’s finding it very cold.

Difference Between 'Used to' and 'Would' 

'Used to' can refer to permanent situations as well as habitual actions. 
Example:

I used to be able to get up at nine o'clock every morning. = It was possible for me to do this in my past situation.

'Would' only refers to actions, but not situations. 
Example:

He'd get up early every morning. 
Not:
He'd be able to get a good job in New York. 


‘Be/get used to’ can be used with past, present and future tenses.

• You might find it strange at first but you’ll soon get used to it.
• He wasn’t used to the heat and he caught sunstroke.
•  
•  
• EXERCISE ONE
• EXERCISE TWO 
• EXERCISE THREE 

FECHAS DE LOS EXÁMENES DE PROGRESO.

DÍAS DE EXÁMENES DEL GRUPO NB2.1A:

JUEVES 13 DE DICIEMBRE: WRITING

MARTES 18 DE DICIEMBRE: SPEAKING

MARTES 15 DE ENERO: READING

JUEVES 17 DE ENERO: LISTENING 

Y EXÁMEN DEL LIBRO DE LECTURA

THANKSGIVING DAY AND THE MAYFLOWER.

Third Conditional: no possibility

EXERCISE ONE

EXERCISE TWO 

EXERCISE THREE 

The first conditional and second conditionals talk about the future. With the third conditional we talk about the past. We talk about a condition in the past that did not happen. That is why there is no possibility for this condition. The third conditional is also like a dream, but with no possibility of the dream coming true.
Last week you bought a lottery ticket. But you did not win. :-(

	condition	result
	Past Perfect	WOULD HAVE + Past Participle
If	I had won the lottery	I would have bought a car.

Notice that we are thinking about an impossible past condition. You did not win the lottery. So the condition was not true, and that particular condition can never be true because it is finished. We use the past perfect tense to talk about the impossible past condition. We use WOULD HAVE + past participle to talk about the impossible past result. The important thing about the third conditional is that both the condition and result are impossible now.

Sometimes, we use should have, could have, might have instead of would have, for example: If you had bought a lottery ticket, you might have won.

Look at some more examples in the tables below:

IF	condition	result
	past perfect	WOULD HAVE + past participle
If	I had seen Mary	I would have told her.
If	Tara had been free yesterday	I would have invited her.
If	they had not passed their exam	their teacher would have been sad.
If	it had rained yesterday	would you have stayed at home?
If	it had rained yesterday	what would you have done?

 

result	IF	condition
WOULD HAVE + past participle		past perfect
I would have told Mary	if	I had seen her.
I would have invited Tara	if	she had been free yesterday.
Their teacher would have been sad	if	they had not passed their exam.
Would you have stayed at home	if	it had rained yesterday?
What would you have done	if	it had rained yesterday?

ADJECTIVES IN -ED OR -ING.

-ed' and '-ing' adjectives: describing feelings and things:

 My holiday was relaxing. I felt really relaxed.'

Few, but common, adjectives end in either -ed or -ing:

worried/worrying, interested/interesting, excited/exciting

'-ed' adjectives

Adjectives that end in -ed are used to describe how people feel:

'He was surprised to find that he had been upgraded to first class.'
'I was confused by the findings of the report.'
'She felt tired after working hard all day.'

 '-ing' adjectives

Adjectives that end in -ing are used to describe things and situations. Compare these example sentences to the ones above:

'Being upgraded to first class is surprising.'
The findings of this report are confusing.'
'Working hard all day is tiring.'

 example table:

-ed and -ing adjectives tables
Feel '-ed'	describe '-ing'
annoyed	annoying
bored	boring
confused	confusing
depressed	depressing
excited	exciting
frustrated	frustrating
frightened	frightening
satisfied	satisfying
shocked	shockin

EXERCISE ONE

EXERCISE TWO

EXERCISE THREE

DESCRIBING PICTURES IN ENGLISH. From www.englisch-hilfen.de

1. Introduction

• The photo/picture shows ...
• It was taken by/in ...
• It's a black-and-white/coloured photo.

2. What is where?

• In the foreground/background you can see ...
• In the foreground/background there is ...
• In the middle/centre there are ...
• At the top/At the bottom there is ...
• On the left/right there are ...
• Behind/In front of ... you can see ...
• Between ... there is ...

3. Who is doing what?

Here you decribe the persons in the picture or you say what is happening just now. Use the Present Progressive.

4. What I think about the picture

• It seems as if ...
• The lady seems to ...
• Maybe ...
• I think ...
• ... might be a symbol of ...
• The atmosphere is peaceful/depressing ...
• I (don't) like the picture because ...
• It makes me think of ... 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

THE CORRS. INTERVIEW AND SONG.

FORMAL EMAILS.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO ACCESS TO THE PDF FILE.

SONG: YOU´RE UNBELIEVABLE.

QUESTION TAGS.

QUESTION TAGS

These short questions are used to check information. We use a positive statement followed by a negative tag when we expect the answer YES.

E.g. "You are American, aren't you?"

We use a negative statement followed by a positive tag when we expect the answer NO.

 E.g. "They haven't arrived yet, have they?"

EXAMPLES:

I told you, didn't I?
It'll be sunny tomorrow, won't it?
He can't dive, can he?
They don't eat meat, do they?
She cooks well, doesn't she?
I am slim, aren't I?

EXERCISE ONE
EXERCISE TWO

QUESTION FORMATION (1).

To form yes/no questions where there is an auxiliary verb or a modal verb, we invert the word order of a positive sentence.

Question forms & subject/object questions

Review of question forms

Yes/No questions

• Is he a teacher? Yes he is.
• Can you swim? No, I can’t.
• Have they got a car? Yes they have.

To form yes/no questions where there is an auxiliary verb or a modal verb, we invert the word order of a positive sentence. (He is a teacher > Is he a teacher?)

• Do you eat fish? No I don’t.
• Does she know you. Yes she does.

When there is no auxiliary verb we use ‘do’ to form the question.

With question words

The same rules apply when there is a question word (‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, ‘who’, ‘which’, ‘how’, ‘how much’, ‘how many’)

• Where is the hotel?
• What can you smell?
• Who has just arrived?

Where there is an auxiliary or modal verb, that verb is used to form the question.

• How did you get here?
• When do your parents get back?
• How much does it cost?

Where there is no auxiliary verb, we use do.

Subject/Object questions

Sometimes you might see questions like this.

• Who broke the window?
• What happened next?
• Who told you that?

There is no auxiliary verb and the word order is not inverted.

These are called subject questions – because the question word is the subject of the sentence.

Look at these two questions.

• Who does Romeo love? Romeo loves Juliet.
• Who loves Romeo? Juliet loves Romeo.

In the first question, Romeo is the subject of the verb.
In the second question ‘who’ is the subject and Romeo is the object.

QUESTION FORMATION (2).

question formation upper intermediate de ramiro cebreiro




EXERCISE ONE
EXERCISE TWO
EXERCISE THREE