Reported speech exercise

Turn the following interrogative sentences into indirect speech.
1. Student to clerk: ‘When will the application forms be ready?’
2. Girl to clerk: ‘How much should I pay for the application form?’
3. Patient (woman) to doctor: ‘Can I take solid food?’
4. Girl to headmaster: ‘Will you allow me to take part in the essay competition?’
5. Bookseller to customer (man): ‘How many copies do you want?’
6. Manager to clerk (man): ‘Have you sent those three letters by speed post?’
7. Candidate to clerk: ‘When will the examinations start?’
8. Student to the headmaster: ‘Are the examinations likely to be postponed?’
9. Patient (woman) to the doctor: ‘Should I take the tablet before or after the food?’
10. My friend to me: ‘When do you usually get up?’
Answers

Exercise: degrees of comparison

Complete the following sentences using an adjective or adverb of the appropriate degree.
1. Who is the ………………….. bowler in your team ? (fast / faster / fastest)
2. Charles Lamb is one of the …………….. writers. (fascinating / more fascinating / most fascinating)
3. I have not come across a ……………….. friend than Ramesh. (reliable / more reliable / most reliable)
4. You should not take …………….. than 40 minutes to do this work. (much / more / most)
5. No …………….. did the police arrive than the mob dispersed. (soon / sooner / soonest)
6. Which is the ……………. river in the world? (long / longer / longest)
7. Who is the ………………….. runner in the world? (fast / faster / fastest)
8. Sometimes, the cure is ……………. than the disease. (bad / worse / worst)
9. Take the ………………. of the two routes. (short / shorter / shortest)
10. I got up ………….. than usual today. (early / earlier / earliest)
Answers

Verb Tenses

Complete the following sentences using an appropriate verb form.
1. I ………………. that film last week.
a) have seen
b) saw
c) had seen
2. When I reached home, he ………………….
a) was having a bath
b) had a bath
c) had been having a bath
3. He said that he …………………. her last year.
a) saw
b) had seen
c) have seen
4. She ……………….. before her husband arrived.
a) died
b) has died
c) had died
5. My friend …………………… for about a month.
a) is ill
b) has been ill
c) had been ill
6. He ………………… his watch shortly after he ………………. it.
a) lost, had bought
b) had lost, had bought
c) had lost, bought
7. My friend ………………… in Singapore since 2005.
a) is living
b) has been living
c) lives
8. He got angry before I …………………. a word.
a) said
b) had said
c) have said
9. I ………………. him for a long time.
a) did not see
b) have not seen
c) had not seen
10. He ……………….. for a walk in the morning.
a) goes
b) is going
c) has gone
Answers

Passive voice exercise

Complete the following sentences using an appropriate passive verb. Choose your answer from the given options.
1. This house ……………………. by my grandfather in 1970.
a) built
b) has built
c) was built
d) was building
2. French …………………… in many parts of Europe.
a) is speaking
b) is spoken
c) has spoken
d) is speaking
3. The roof ……………………….. by the contractor.
a) is being repaired
b) is repairing
c) repaired
d) has repaired
4. I felt as if I …………………………
a) was watching
b) was being watched
c) has watched
5. He needs ……………………….
a) be taken care of
b) to be taken care of
c) to taken care of
6. You …………………… when the time comes.
a) will told
b) will be told
c) will tell
7. I ………………….. a whole lot of information.
a) have just been send
b) have just been sent
c) have send
d) have just being sent
8. We ………………. a collection of old manuscripts.
a) shown
b) showed
c) were shown
d) were showed
9. Dinner ………………………….
a) is cooking
b) is being cooked
c) has cooked
d) has being cooked
10. Too many books ……………………….. about Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
a) have been written
b) have written
c) are writing
d) have been writing

Answers

Infinitives with and without to

The infinitive can be used with or without to. Infinitives used with ‘to’ are called to-infinitives and infinitives used without ‘to’ are called bare infinitives.

Complete the following sentences using an infinitive.
1. I want ………………. a letter.
a) write
b) to write
2. I ought ………………… a letter.
a) to have written
b) have written
3. You should ……………….. a doctor.
a) have consulted
b) to have consulted
4. I can ………………… a strange sound.
a) hear
b) to hear
c) hearing
5. I could ……………….
a) have won
b) to have won
6. I will …………….. what I like.
a) say
b) to say
7. The boys must ………………. the rules.
a) obey
b) to obey
8. You need not …………………
a) go
b) to go
c) going
9. He dare not …………………
a) refuse
b) to refuse
10. She didn’t dare …………….. anything.
a) say
b) to say
c) saying
11. We need two months ………………….. the work.
a) to complete
b) complete
c) completing
12. I bade him …………………..
a) come
b) to come
c) coming

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Change into negative

Change the following affirmative sentences into negative sentences.
1. James managed to arrive on time.
2. He gave me something to eat.
3. They fixed the roof in six hours.
4. He goes to office at 9 o’clock.
5. He can speak French.
6. They arrived in the morning.
7. He writes to his mother every day.
8. The milkman comes early in the morning.
9. I have bought something for you.
10. She knows how to make a cake.
11. He dared to answer me back.
12. There is someone at the door.
13. Somebody is responsible for this mischief.
14. She has promised to get me something.
15. The president made an important decision.
16. He reads all newspapers.
17. She knows how to make tea.
18. My friend writes short stories.
Click here to check your answers

Present Perfect. Exercise

Make sentences in the present perfect  using the verbs given in the brackets.
1. We …………………….. (live) in this street since 2005.
2. She …………………….. (return) from work.
3. I …………………. (hear) anything from her. (Use the negative form)
4. We ………………….. (invite) to their party. (Use the passive form)
5. She …………………. (act) in a film.
6. She ………………….. (understand) her mistake.
7. They …………………… (invest) in real estate.
8. We …………………. (receive) the letter.
9. You ………………….. (miss) a great opportunity.
10. Sushama ……………………. (finish) working on that report.
11. The police ………………….. (trace) the missing boy.
12. The criminals …………………. (arrest) by the police. (Use the passive form)
13. They boys ……………….. (hand) in their work.
14. They children ………………….. (learn) their lessons.
15. The boy ……………….. (steal) the money.
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Tenses. Multiple Choice.

Tenses
Complete the following sentences using an appropriate verb form.
1. They ……………………… for years.
a) are waiting
b) have been waiting
c) had been waiting
2. She ……………….. to all countries in Latin America.
a) has been
b) was
c) will be
3. ‘There is the doorbell.’ ‘I ……………….’
a) will go
b) am going
c) go
4. Jane ……………….. Mark.
a) sees
b) is seeing
c) see
5. The little girl …………….. with her parents in a small hut.
a) lives
b) is living
c) has living
6. The boy …………………… on the burning deck.
a) stood
b) has stood
c) stand
7. I wish I …………………. his address.
a) know
b) knew
c) have known
8. The river ………………….. under the bridge.
a) flows
b) flies
c) has flown
9. It is time we ……………………
a) leave
b) left
c) have left
10. He ………………… for you at the gate.
a) waits
b) is waiting
c) has waited

Click here to check your answers

Some Common Mistakes in English

 

Common Mistakes Quiz

GAME

Enjoy yourself! 

Ireland, The Emerald Isle

Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, which covers the remaining area and is located in the north-east of the island. The population of Ireland is about 6.4 million. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland and just over 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.

The island's geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild but changeable oceanic climate, which avoids extremes in temperature.
Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature and, to a lesser degree, science and education. Alongside mainstream Western culture, a strong indigenous culture exists, as expressed for example through Gaelic games, Irish music, and the Irish language.

Emerald Isle is the poetic name for Ireland due to its green countryside, first referred to in print by William Drennan in his poem "When Erin first rose".Watch the video and you'll fall in love with this country.

Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England

The United Kingdom (yellow)

The British Isles

Great Britain

Math Symbols

The weather

Relative Pronouns

E-mails

Sample Business Letter

At the Doctor's

Household Chores and Cleaning

Stonehenge

Optional subtitles in English

Leisure activities

Summer's coming. 
                                                  What are you going to do?
     Why don't you try one of these leisure activities?

The beach, Ocean, Seashore, Coast

Calvin Harris - Summer

A Funny School Poem for Kids, by Kenn Nesbitt

The Teachers Jumped Out of the Windows
A Funny School Poem for Kids
by Kenn Nesbitt

The teachers jumped out of the windows.
The principal ran for the door.
The nurse and librarian bolted.
They're not coming back anymore.

The counselor, hollering madly,
escaped out the door of the gym.
The coach and custodian shouted
and ran out the door after him.

The lunch ladies threw up their ladles,
then fled from the kitchen in haste,
while all of the students looked puzzled
as staff members scurried and raced.

We'd never seen anything like it.
But, still, it was pretty darned cool
to see all the staff so excited
to leave on the last day of school.

Copyright © 2007 Kenn Nesbitt
All Rights Reserved
From www.poetry4kids.com

Click on this link if you want to listen to the poem

Football, Football, Football!!!

Once I heard somebody say 'Football is Culture'....., is it?
 Let's learn some words related to football (Thanks Cork English Teacher)

And if you want to play, click here to play Nike Football: The Last Game.

Have fun!!!!

Sports: Do, Play or Go?

Say, Speak, Talk or Tell?

Masculine or Feminine?

How to pronounce....

1.  /ɔːlˈðəʊ/
2.  /ˈkʌmfətəbl/
3.  /ˈdɔːtəʳ/
4.  /ˈfɒrɪn/
5.   /lɑːf/
6.  /fəˈtɒgrəfəʳ/
7.  /ˌpɒlɪˈtɪʃən/
8.  /sɪksθ/

9. / ˈθ3ːzdɪ/

10.   /ˈwɪmɪn/

Interjections

Tongue Twister

Riddle

Writing a book/film review

Book / Film Review

---

Follow these steps to write a book or film review.

Pre writing

Remember and take notes of the plot of the story. What impression did it produce on you?

Writing

• Introduction: give the title and author of the book. If you're reviewing a film mention the director or actors.
• Body:
  1. Summarize the plot in a few sentences.
  2. Mention the setting: the place and time of the plot.
  3. Say something about the main characters.
  4. Say something about the content.
• Conclusion:
  1. Comment on the book or film.
  2. Let others know whether or not you liked the book/film.
  3. Why do you like it? Why don't you like it?
  4. Is the author's style good or bad, is the book / film interesting or boring etc.
  5. Do you want to recommend the book/film?

Post writing

Edit your writing.

Useful Expressions:

  Title, Author / Director, Actors

The film is directed by
The film is produced by..
It is starred by...
The book is written by ...

Setting

The action takes place in ... (setting)
The action of the film is set in ...
The story takes place in...

Characters and Plot

The main characters are ...
The story is about ....
The novel tells the story of ...
In the course of the novel the action develops dramatically.
The novel / film begins with...
The novel has an unexpected ending.
The end of ... is ...

  Reaction  

I am impressed by
I think ....
The book is terribly / beautifully written
The film is terrible / exciting.
What surprised me is ...
What I liked is...
What I didn't like is...
I liked/didn't like the film / novel because ...

                                                                                                                                          myenglishpages.com

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Capitalization

Capitalization rules

Capitalization is the writing of a word with the first letter as uper-case letter (A,B, C, D,...) and the rest of the word as lower-case letters (a,b,c,d,...)
Read the capitalization rules and study the examples given. 
THE RULES

Capitalize the first word in a sentence. 
They arrived late. They had dinner and went to sleep. 
The first word in a quote. 
He said, "You are fantastic.
Capitalize " I ". 
I'm very sorry for being late. I missed the bus. 
Capitalize proper nouns. 
George was furious when he heard the bad news from Alice. 
Capitalize names of rivers, mountains. 
The Nile River is in Egypt.
The highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest. 
The official title of a person, the initials in someone's name are capitalized 
Dr Lynch
D. H. Lawrance is a wonderful novelist. 
Days of the week, months of the year, holidays are capitalized.
We went to Paris on Monday and came back on Saturday.
The Independence Day is in July not January. 
Capitalize countries, cities, languages, nationalities.
New York is more exciting than seatle.
He lives in London, but he's not English. He's Nigerian.
He speaks English, Chinese and Japanese. 
The first word in each line of a poem.

            "Who will believe my verse in time to come,
            If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?
            Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
            Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts."
            Shakespeare.

                                                                      myenglishpages.com

Punctuation

---

Punctuation rules

---

Punctuation marks are symbols which

1. organize the structure of written language,
2. and indicate intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.

Punctuation marks are also used to avoid ambiguity. For example, "woman, without her man, is nothing" has a different meaning from "woman: without her, man is nothing"
This is a summary of punctuation rules.
Read the punctuation rules and study the examples given.

End punctuation marks:

1. Full stop , or period (.)

• Used a full stop at the end of a sentence:
  She stood up and went away. She was furious.
• Used for abbreviations:
  Co. (Company)
  M.P. (Member of Parliament)
  

2. Question marks (?)

• Question marks are used at the end of direct questions:
  Where do you live?
  Are you crazy?
  Did you do the homework?
• Use a question mark at the end of tag questions:
  You will help me, won't you?
  He likes soccer, doesn't he?
  

3. Exclamation marks (!)

• Used to indicate strong emotions:
  She's so beautiful!
  What a nice girl!
  How interesting!
• Used after interjections:
  Oh! It's awful.
  Hi! What's up?

Commas (,)

• Commas are used between items in a series or list. The last two items of the series usually do not need a comma between them. They are separated by "and".
  I like spaghetti, fish, pizza and couscous.
• Commas are also used between adjectives or adverbs:
  I'd like to have a big, black, German car.
  She speaks slowly, quietly and eloquently.
• After the street address and city in an address:
  34 Hassan II Street, Rabat, Morocco.
• Before or after direct speech:
  He said,"I hate being treated like that."
  "I'm sorry", she replied.
• Before a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
  He woke up late, so he had to drive to work.

Semicolons (;)

• Semicolons are used instead of a full stop or period to separate independent sentences:
  They woke up early; then they went jogging.
• Use a semicolon to separate items in a series when those items contain punctuation such as a comma:
  They visited the Eiffel Tower, Paris; Big Ben, London; and the statue of liberty, New York

Colons (:)

• Use a colon to introduce a list:
  He visited three cities last summer holiday: Madrid, Roma and Athens.
• To introduce an idea or an explanation:
  He had one idea in mind: to see her as soon as possible.
• To introduce direct speech or a quotation:
  The secretary whispered in his ear: "Your wife is on the phone. "
  

Dashes (--)

• To introduce parenthetical information:
  I put on a blue jacket --the one my mother bought me-- and blue jeans.
• To show an afterthought:
  I explained to him my point of view-- at least I tried!
  

Apostrophes (')

• Use an apostrophe to indicate a missing letter or letters in a contraction.
  I'm fed up with his stories
• Use an apostrophe plus the letter "s" to show possession.
  My brother's girlfriend is such a sweet girl.

Quotation marks ("")

• Quotation marks are used to quote speech, sentences or words.
  She said, "I love you."

                                                                                                                               myenglishpages.com
                                                                                                               

Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness (lyrics)

Joke!

Queen - Friends Will Be Friends ...right till the end

I will survive with lyrics

A joke

Rephrasing for batxillerat: solutions

Solutions to the rephrasing worksheets:

26.             Michael suggested playing computer games.

27.              She asked him if he was coming to the party on Friday.

28.             They have been living in New York for two years.

29.             You mustn’t smoke in hospitals.

30.           In spite of the horrible weather, we went skiing.

31.              I wish I had more free time these days.

32.             It’s been a year since I met that famous writer.

33.             If Wendy had studied for her test, she wouldn’t have failed.

34.             She ordered / begged / asked the students not to speak so loud.

35.             As we don’t have enough money, we won’t buy that house.

36.             That is the man whose brother is my new English teacher.

37.              Steve suggested telling Paul about it.

38.             If I had made a note of it in my diary, I wouldn’t have forgotten about it.

39.             Although she ran well, she lost the race.

40.            Her boyfriend may come to the wedding.

41.              Beth stopped smoking last December.

42.             My new neighbours have got a baby whose name is Wendy.

43.             Despite being over seventy, Orson continued to cycle to work every day.

44.            It is eight years since I read a play by George Bernard Shaw.

45.             Sharon’s mother recommended going out in the afternoon.

46.            The fireman was able to rescue the child from the burning house.

47.            The suspects aren’t obliged to say anything by the police.

48.            How old is your grandfather?

49.           It is years since she enjoyed herself so much.

50.           I’m really looking forward to going to the theatre tomorrow.

51.             She’s having the windows mended.

52.            It’s not as good as I thought it would be.

53.             She told us not to be late.

54.             If she had studied hard for the exam, she wouldn’t have made a lot of mistakes.

55.             His jokes are better than hers.

56.             We may be together soon.

57.              English is spoken all over the world.

58.             I wish I had told him everything.

59.             Fiona, who is my boss, is smiling in the picture.

60.           Although it was very hot, she was wearing her winter clothes.

61.              I would like to have been invited.

62.             My house is being painted now.

63.            I wish I had got a car.

Scrabble

How many words can you create? Click here to play

One Republic- If I lose myself (Lyrics)