HOW TO TALK ABOUT FILMS IN ENGLISH

ENCONTRADO EN: www.kaplaninternational.com/blog

A QUICK REMINDER ON MODAL VERBS

ENCONTRADO EN: fluentland.stfi.re

INTERNET, EMAIL AND WHATSAPP VOCABULARY AND ABBREVIATIONS

FUENTE COMÚN: www.pinterest.com

TIPS FOR WRITING A FILM REVIEW: AN EXAMPLE

ENCONTRADO EN: learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org

FOR MORE PRACTICE AND EXERCISES ON THIS EXAMPLE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW:

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing-skills-practice/film-review

QUESTION TAGS

Question tags

Question tags are the short questions that we put on the end of sentences – particularly in spoken English. There are lots of different question tags but the rules are not difficult to learn.

Positive/negative

If the main part of the sentence is positive, the question tag is negative ….

• He’s a doctor, isn’t he?
• You work in a bank, don’t you?

... and if the main part of the sentence is negative, the question tag is positive.

• You haven’t met him, have you?
• She isn’t coming, is she?

With auxiliary verbs

The question tag uses the same verb as the main part of the sentence. If this is an auxiliary verb (‘have’, ‘be’) then the question tag is made with the auxiliary verb.

• They’ve gone away for a few days, haven’t they?
• They weren’t here, were they?
• He had met him before, hadn’t he?
• This isn’t working, is it?

Without auxiliary verbs

If the main part of the sentence doesn’t have an auxiliary verb, the question tag uses an appropriate form of ‘do’.

• I said that, didn’t I?
• You don’t recognise me, do you?
• She eats meat, doesn’t she?

With modal verbs

If there is a modal verb in the main part of the sentence the question tag uses the same modal verb.

• They couldn’t hear me, could they?
• You won’t tell anyone, will you?

With ‘I am’

Be careful with question tags with sentences that start ‘I am’. The question tag for ‘I am’ is ‘aren’t I?’

• I’m the fastest, aren’t I?

Intonation

Question tags can either be ‘real’ questions where you want to know the answer or simply asking for agreement when we already know the answer.

If the question tag is a real question we use rising intonation. Our tone of voice rises.

If we already know the answer we use falling intonation. Our tone of voice falls.

ENCONTRADO EN: learnenglish.britishcouncil.org

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE CHART

Figurative language creates an image or suggests an idea and isn’t meant to be taken literally.

Example:

Literal: January is a winter month.

Figurative: January’s icy fingers freeze everything they touch.

ENCONTRADO EN: languagelearningbase.com

WORDS TO USE INSTEAD OF "VERY"

ENCONTRADO EN: facebook.com/EnglishIF

30 FREQUENTLY USED IDIOMS IN ENGLISH

ENCONTRADO EN: languagelearningbase.com

A BEAUTIFUL AND INSPIRATIONAL SHORT FILM: THE PRESENT

The Present from Jacob Frey on Vimeo.

WRITING MYSTERY STORIES: 10 MYSTERY STORY IDEAS TO FOSTER YOUR IMAGINATION

CREATED BY VALANGLIA

STORY 1:

Wealthy, unmarried Anne Lamont is murdered, and she leaves her entire fortune to a man she met two weeks before, putting suspicion squarely on him. Detective Arnold thinks the man is innocent. He has a week to make his case before this goes before a jury. But when he digs into Anne’s background, he finds the sweet old matron wasn’t at all what she seemed. (To be continued by you).

STORY 2:

A headless corpse is found in a freshly-dug grave in Arkansas. The local police chief, Arley Socket, has never had to deal with more than missing gas cans and treed cats. His exploration of this weird murder digs up a mystery older than the 100-year-old town of Jericho that harkens all the way back to a European blood-feud. (To be continued by you).

STORY 3:

Someone is murdering homeless people in Phoenix, Arizona. Detective Sally Fortnight is determined to get to the bottom of it… but what she uncovers may be more deadly than she could ever guess. (To be continued by you).

STORY 4:

It is the Cold War era. Private Eye Charles Nick searches for a missing cryptanalyst, all the while dodging an obsessed FBI agent who thinks Nick is a communist spy. The cryptanalyst, by the way, went missing for a good reason: he might have cracked the latest Russian spy code, and he’s running for his life. (To be continued by you).

STORY 5:

1850’s England: elderly Doris and her six young wards are caught in a storm and forced to ask for shelter at an enormous manor deep in the English countryside. But all is not well in this home, and before long, Doris faces a bizarre problem: the manor’s lord, Sir Geoffrey, claims his estranged wife Alice is going to murder him that evening. Alice, meanwhile, claims that Geoffrey is going to murder her. After dinner, both are found dead, in the library, seated as if having a rational discussion, but dead as mice. There is no obvious murder weapon, and quite possibly, the murderer is loose in the manor. Doris is no detective, but she might as well figure this out. Given that storm, help won’t be coming until it’s too late. (To be continued by you).

STORY 6:

Twelve-year-old Alexandra is a leader. She runs her school’s newspaper, manages three after-school clubs (the book club, the fencing club, and the junior stamp-collector club), and doesn’t have time for nonsense. Which is why when she sees a man dressed all in black carrying a manilla folder as he climbs out of her principal’s window, her determination to get to the bottom of it knows no bounds. Look out, data-thief. Here comes Alexandra! (To be continued by you).

STORY 7:

David is a senior software engineer for a major tech company, and he spends most days knee-deep in other people’s databases, trying to figure out what they did wrong.  One day, he happens across a piece of malicious code designed to steal financial information. He reports it and deletes it, but he comes across that same code again—in the database of a completely different company. He finds it again; and again. And the fifth time around, his manager drops a hint that the higher-ups think he’s the best person to figure out who’s planting it. Undercover, they send him to each of the company’s data centers: one in London, one in Boston, one in Dallas, and one in Seattle. It’s going to be his job—socially anxious as he is—to interview everyone and find out who’s planting that code and why. (To be continued by you).

STORY 8:

General March hires Detective Thomas to try to find the person who’s been blackmailing March for the past twenty years. Thomas tracks the miscreant down, but finds that the man behind the threats has been dead for the past ten years. So who’s carrying on the blackmailing? And is the secret that’s held March prisoner this long something that should stay a secret? (To be continued by you).

STORY 9:

Defense attorney Bob Larson enjoys his job. He likes justice; he likes being right. Usually, he thinks right and wrong are really easy to spot. Then he ends up representing a young Navy Seal who shot and killed an elderly woman—and claims it was in self-defense. Who’s really the bad guy? (To be continued by you).

STORY 10:

Sandra is a mystery-lover. She sees mysteries and hidden conspiracies everywhere they aren’t, and her sister Carrie laughs this off as a silly quirk… until Carrie is framed for the murder of the man in the next apartment. Carrie’s DNA is somehow all over the place, though she swears she’s never even been in that apartment before. No one thinks Carrie is innocent but Sandra… and she has a limited amount of time to prove her sister is innocent. (To be continued by you).

SOURCE: thewritepractice.com