The Passive Voice

The passive voice is used for different reasons:

      1. When the subject is not important or unknown,

      2. When the object is more important than the subject,

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

• the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
• the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
• the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)

"New houses will be built in the city."

To practise go to this link!

Recuperación de clases

Hi all! I remind you next day and on 15th December our class will finish at 21:00!

How / What!

Exclamative sentences are used to make exclamations. These are also referred to as exclamative sentences or exclamatives. These are used to express strong feelings, strong emphasis or emotion.

Exclamative sentence can begin with "what" or "how":

WHAT + NOUN Phrase (sintagma nominal: (adjetivo) nombre)

What a stupid man he is!
What a surprise!
What a nice hat!
HOW + ADJECTIVE / ADVERB (adjetivo o adverbio)
How wonderful you look!
How well everyone played!

To practise click on these links:
1. Choose the correct option
2. More practice

(A) few vs. (a) little

The use of "a few" and "a little" depends on nature of the following noun, that is, if the noun is countable, "few" is used. On the contrary, if it´s uncountable, "little" is the correct one. Remember countable nouns are those which can be counted and therefore, they have singular and plural forms. On the other hand, uncountable nouns cna´t be counted and they always appear in the singular (they don´t have plural forms).

As you know, "little" and "few" can appear without article "a/an" and when this happens their meaning changes.

Let´s do some exercises!

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Second Conditional Sentences

The second conditional is used to talk about a future unreal situation, that is, there isn´t any possibility this condition will happen. On these links you have some exercises. In the first one you have to make second conditional sentences and the second one is a gap filling exercise.

Remember the first conditional is different in construction and use (we talk about a real possibility in the future). Let´s do this exercise where you have to decide what conditional is the correct one !

Past Perfect Simple

We use the past perfect simple to talk about an action taking place before a certain time in the past:

"When Sarah arrived home, their parents had already gone to bed." Which action happend first? 

Sarah´s parents went to bed before she arrived. he past perfect simple is also called "the past of the past".

Exercise 1: Fill in the gaps with the correct form of the past perfect simple.

Exercise 2: Past simple or past perfect?

Exercise 3: Past simple, present perfect or past perfect?

Listening: Past Tenses

Now, let´s practise the listening comprehension skill!

1. You are going to listen to a conversation between friends talking about the past. Hear the conversation (click on the link to download the file) and answer the questions.

2. A challenge: this is a difficult video about puffins, a small bird which lives in the north areas.

Past Simple vs. Past Continuous

In this unit you study the difference between the past simple, the past continuous and the present perfect simple, let´s see when to use them.

• Use the past simple when:

- you enumerate a series of past actions which happend one after another:

   "She came home, switched on the computer and checked her e-mails."

- you just want to mention that an action took place in the past:

   "Collin visited us yesterday."

• Use the past continuous when:

- two past actions happened at the same time:

   "Simon was playing on the computer when his brother was watching TV."

- you want to put emphasis on the progress:

  "At six o´clock Simon was playing football yesterday."

• Use both, past simple and past continuous when:

- you want to express that a new action happened in the middle of another action:

   "The telephone rang while I was having dinner."

Exercise 1: Group the sentences according to the tense used.

Exercise 2: Match the first part of the sentence to the second.

Exercise 3: Type the correct tense.

Exercise 4 and exercise 5: Put the verbs in the correct tense.

• Use the present perfect when:

- you want to put emphasis on the result:

   "I´ve written a book."

- the action has stopped recently:

   "Peter has cooked dinner today."
- finished action that has an influence on the present:

   "I have lost my keys."

- you talk about  "experience" without mentioning the time:

   "I have been to  London."

Exercise 1: Put the verbs into the right form using the present perfect.

Exericse 2:

Exercise 3: Irregular verbs

Test 1, test 2, test 3

Regular Past Pronunciation (-ed)

Hi all! The past ending -ED pronunciation always presents a big problem for English students. This final -ED is pronounced in three different ways, depending on the previous sound: / Id/ or / t/ or / d/. But what is the rule? The first thing you should keep in mind is the type of sound preceding the -ED:

1. If it is /t/ or /d/, the -ED pronunciation is / Id/

2. if the sound is VOICED (the vocal chords vibrate when producing voiced sounds, sonidos sonoros), the pronunciation is /d/

3. Finally, if the sound is UNVOICED (our vocal chords don´t vibrate, sonidos sordos), the correct pronunciation is /t/.

But which sounds are voiced and which unvoiced? Have a look at this link and try to remember.

Now, let´s practice:

-Exercise 1: Classify the past forms of the verbs according to their pronunciation

-Exercise 2: Choose the correct pronunciation

-Exercise 3: Listening!! Hear the story and choose the correct option
-Exercise 4: Click on the play, which is the correct pronunication?

And if you really want more, go to my place and practise with the videos!

Important!!

As I promised, here you have the essential information about That´s English:
-  School calendar for this course.

-Tutorship:If you have any doubts or grammar questions you have to ask your tutor,  josantoniothatsenglish@yahoo.es

- Extra material (click on the link and register)

- Assessment  (procedure and exams)



Unit 1: Comparison

In Unit 1 you learn how to create the comparison of adjectives and adverbs. What is interesting here is to have clear the use of the "periphrastic form", e.g. more important; and the use of the suffixes -er/est, e.g. cheaper. Another important point is the use of "less" and "few", remember they are not interchangeable: use "less" with uncountable nouns and "few" with countable nouns.

Ready for some exercises?

- Exercise 1: Choose the correct comparative form.

- Exercise 2:  Type the correct comparative form of the adjectives given.

- Exercise 3: Comparative form of adverbs and adjectives.

- Exercise 4: Fill in the gaps with the correct comparative form of the adverbs.

Welcome to my blog!

Hi all!

After our first class I´ve decided to create a new blog just for That´s English students. This way you´ll have all important information and exercises on the same blog. As you see, the blog is an interesting and useful tool for your classes, because not only will you find exercises, but also grammar explanations which may help you with your study.

Enjoy!!!!!