Lingua inglese

LESSON 7. DOMANDE E RISPOSTE

You are going to listen to an extract from a long interview between Justin Webb (a

British journalist for the BBC) and Barack Obama (the 44th President of the United

States) about the Middle East situation and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The full script is provided.

audio-video interview available at: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8078255.stm

The last grammatical topic we studied was the future tense. Could you

 underline in the script of the conversation all the future tenses? Which kind of

future are they? What’s the aim of this choice?

Our new topics are questions and the highlighted expressions in the test are

 examples of these new structures.

See pag.89. These rules apply to almost all written questions and most spoken

questions.

Yes/No questions: subject and verb change their position in statement and question.

statement: John is a doctor. (John è un medico)

question: Is John a doctor? (John è un medico?)

statement : subject + verb VS question: auxiliary verb +

subject + verb ?

In a question, an auxiliary verb normally comes before the subject.

Have you received my letter? (NOT You have received my letter?)

Why are you laughing? (NOT Why you are laughing?)

How much does the room cost?

Will you go on holiday with Rose?

In order to enter politely this kind of questions, we use the so-called short answers.

Answers are often grammatically incomplete, because they do not need to repeat

words that have just been said. A typical ‘short answer’ is subject + auxiliary verb,

together with whatever other words are really necessary.

Yes/No, subject + auxiliary verb.

‘Has it stopped raining?’ ‘No, it hasn’t.’ (Ha smesso di piovere? No)

‘Are you enjoying yourself?’ ‘Yes, I am!’ (Ti stai divertendo? Sì)

‘Have you a light?’ ‘Yes, I have.’ (Hai un accendino? Sì)

See pag.92 par.6.3. English questions are often introduced by wh-words; these words -

who whom which what whose why when where how - are used in questions to show

what kind of information is wanted. Questions words normally come at the beginning

of their clauses. Wh-word + auxiliary verb + subject + verb?

Who did you meet at the party? (Chi hai incontrato alla festa?)

What is your name? (Come ti chiami?)

When will you leave? (Quando partirete?)

• which and what: the difference.

Which and what are often both possible, with little difference of meaning. Which is

preferred when the speaker has a limited number of choices in mind.

Which size do you want – small, medium or large? (Quale taglia desidera –

small, medium or large?)

When the speaker is not thinking of a limited number of choices what is used.

What’s your telephone number? (Qual è il tuo numero di telefono?)

• whose: question word.

Whose is a possessive word meaning ‘of whom/which’, used in questions and relative

clauses. It can be used with a noun as a determiner like a common adjective.

Whose car is that outside? (Di chi è quella macchina lì fuori?)

Whose can also be used alone, like an ordinary pronoun.

Whose is that car outside? (Di chi è quella macchina lì fuori?)

• how: use and word order.

How is used to introduce questions or the answers to questions. Many interrogative

expressions of two or more words begin with how. These are used to ask for

measurements, quantities etc. Examples:

How many people were there? (Quante persone c’erano?)

How far is your house? (Quanto è lontana casa tua?)

How old are your parents? (Quanti anni hanno i tuoi genitori?)

• how and what ... like?

We generally use how to ask about things that change – for example people’s moods

and health. We usually prefer what ... like? To ask about things that do not change – for

example people’s character and appearance. Compare:

‘How is Henry?’ ‘He is very well.’ (Come sta Henry? Bene)

‘What’s John like?’ ‘He is quiet and a bit shy.’ (Com’è Henry? È tranquillo e

piuttosto timido)

‘How does she look today?’ ‘Tired.’ (Come ti sembra oggi? Stanca)

‘What does your sister look like?’ ‘Short and dark, very pretty.’ (Com’è tua

sorella? È bassa e di carnagione scura, molto carina)

Do exercises n.1-2-3-4 pag.94-95.

BECAUSE VS BECAUSE OF

In this lesson we are going to learn how to use because and because of. They are

normally use to give reasons, but actually in English they are used very differently.

Because in itself is a conjunction.

Because of is a preposition.

As an ordinary conjunction, because is followed by a subject and a verb.

As a preposition, because of is followed by a noun or a noun phrase.

Examples:

1. Because it was raining, we cancelled the pick-nick or We cancelled the pick-nick

because it was raining.

2. Because of the rain, we cancelled the pick-nick or We cancelled the pick-nick

because of the rain.

Let’s look at some other examples

1. Because the flight was delayed, they missed the meeting.

2. Because of the flight delay, they missed the meeting.

Complete the following eight sentences with because or because of.

1. _______________________ she was busy, she didn’t call me.

2. _______________________ the traffic jam, they were late.

3. _______________________ he had the flu, he couldn’t work.

4. _______________________ the distance, they took a taxi.

5. We visited John, _______________________ he was in the hospital.

6. I couldn’t concentrate _______________________ the noise.

7. She was hungry, _______________________ she hadn’t eaten all day.

8. We changed the appointment _______________________ the storm.

What or Which

In this lesson we are going to learn how to use the question word WHICH and the

question word WHAT.

Is there a difference? Yes, it is, but it is very easy to understand. Look at the following

examples:

What colour do you like? Which colour do you like?

Why? Because we are asking, out of all colours in the world, what colour you

like.

What colour do you prefer? Red or blue? Which colour do you prefer? Red or

blue?

Why? Because we have a specific choice

We use WHAT with things that are very wide, broad or general, where the

number of options or possibilities are unknown or very large.

We use WHICH when we have limited options, not wide.

Let’s focus our attention on some examples from social, academic and business

context.

SOCIAL CONTEXT

1. What do you want to do today? (very general question)

2. Which movie do you want to see? Star Wars or Batman?

ACADEMIC CONTEXT

1. What would you like to learn?

2. Which class do you prefer? Music or Art?

BUSINESS CONTEXT

1. What are our options?

2. Which conference are you attending?

Complete the following sentences with what or which.

1. Let’s pretend that you are on a date and you want to get to know the other person.

So you ask:

_______ kind of music do you like?

2. Let’s say that you’re thinking about learning to play an instrument and you ask the

salesperson:

_______ instrument is easier to learn? The guitar or the piano?

3. You bump into your classmate and she asks you :

_______ course is more interesting? Psychology or Sociology?

4. Your rich uncle wants to give you a birthday present, so he calls you and asks you:

_______ kind of computer do you want?

5. You want to make a hotel reservation and the reservation clerk asks you: _______

room would you prefer? With an ocean view or a city view?

6. You are in an ES school and your friend asks you:

So _______ exam do you have to take? The IELTS or the TOEFL?

EASY THREE-WORD QUESTION (I)

The questions we are going to study have only three words, so they are easy to

understand, to remember and, to learn and use!

1. What’s the matter? (what’s wrong?)

2. Do you mind? (do you have any objections? Do you not accept what I am saying?)

3. Have you heard? (when there is some sort of big news)

4. Care for another? (short form of a longer question; Would you like...? Do you

want...?)

5. Who is it? (we are talking about people; for example if you have a phone call, it

means who is calling)

The questions we are going to study have only three words, so they are easy to

understand, to remember and, to learn and use!

6. Leaving so soon? (Why are you leaving so soon?)

7. Have you met? (it usually refers to two people do you know each other?)

8. What’s the scoop? (from journalism; scoop is the story, the latest news; what’s

happening?

9. Do you follow? (follow can have different meanings; in this case, it means ‘Do you

understand?’; ‘follow’ can refer to a mental activity)

10. What’s the catch? (when something sounds too good or ideal to be true; the

catch is the hidden problem, disadvantage or condition)

LESSON 9. IL NOME

Read the text and enter the following questions:

a) Do you like Art?

b) Do you like Impressionism? Which is your favourite painter? Why?

AFTER READING

The underlined words are example of regular plurals.

 he words in boldface are example of irregular plurals.

 The highlighted words show possession (Saxon genitive or ’s).



See pag.109. The plural of most nouns is made by just adding –s to the singular. But

there are some special cases:

• plural of nouns ending in consonant + y

If the singular ends in consonant + y (for example –by, -dy, -ry, -ty) the plural is

normally made by changing y to i and adding –es.

SINGULAR PLURAL

consonant + y consonant + ies

baby Babies

lady Ladies

ferry ferries

party parties

If the singular ends in vowel + y (e.g. day, boy, guy, donkey) the plural is made by

adding –s (days, boys, guys, donkeys).

• plural of nouns ending in sh, ch, s, x or to

If the singular ends in sh, ch, s, x or z, the plural is made by adding –es.

SINGULAR PLURAL

sh/ch/s/to shes/ches/ses/zes/toes

box boxes

crash crashes

bus buses

church churches

potato potatoes

• irregular plural in –ves

The following nouns ending in –f (e) have plural in –ves.

SINGULAR PLURAL

calf calves

knife knives

leaf leaves

loaf loaves

life lives

shelf shelves

self selves

wife wives

wolf wolves

half halves

• other irregular plurals

There are several nouns that have irregular plural forms. Plurals formed in this way are

sometimes called mutated plurals.

• more than one child = children

• more than one woman = women

• more than one man = men

• more than one person = people

• more than one goose = geese

• more than one mouse = mice

• more than one