P ASSER - BY : MegaSave, I think. Shall I write it down for you? N INA : No, I think I’ve got it. Thanks a lot. P ASSER - BY : Bye! 1 Hang on = ‘Wait a moment’ Language point 17 – commands The BASE - FORM of the verb can be used on its own to tell someone to do something: Open the door Close the window Lock the door But in colloquial English this way of giving commands is rather short and can sound rude. If we want to give someone directions or instructions, however, it is okay to use the base-form: Turn left at the traffic lights Go straight ahead Plug the computer in and switch on It doesn’t matter whether you are talking to one person or more than one – the base-form stays the same. If we want to tell someone not to do something, we can always use Don’t + base-form: Don’t wait for me Don’t pay the bill Don’t worry 34 Be careful! Normally, except with close friends, or when telling someone to do something nice, we don’t use the base- form when we want someone to do something, as it sounds very short and a bit rude. See Language point 18 on how to do this. ƽ Exercise 1 Say where you think you would find the following orders. Write the correct letters in the blanks. 1 library _j_ a Don’t annoy the teacher! 2 park ___ b Don’t smoke near the patients! 3 bar ___ c Don’t forget to turn off your mobile! 4 restaurant ___ d Don’t forget your passport! 5 hospital ___ e Don’t forget the present! 6 classroom ___ f Don’t drink too much! 7 airport ___ g Don’t complain about the food! 8 swimming pool ___ h Don’t pick the flowers! 9 cinema ___ i Don’t dive! 10 birthday party ___ j Don’t make too much noise! Language point 18 – asking people to do things Instead of giving commands (Language point 17), we usually ask people to do things for us. To do this, we put an AUXILIARY before the base-form: Could you . . . ? Or Would you . . . ?, and at the end of the sentence we can add please: Could you open the window (please)? Would you close the door (please)? Or we can use the auxiliary as a TAG , and start with the base-form: Open the door, could you? Close the door, would you? Don’t forget the auxiliary tag here – otherwise it will sound rude. Exercise 2 Correct these instructions and requests. Be careful! One of them doesn’t need correcting. 1 Slip not on the ice! ________________________ 2 Wait please here a minute. ________________________ 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1211 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 4211 35 3 Be not rude to customers! ________________________ 4 Do this work now, please. ________________________ 5 Don’t please throw litter. ________________________ 6 Open the door, you could? ________________________ 7 You could close the door, ________________________ please? 8 Do wait not for me. ________________________ Dialogue 3 Terry is looking for the bus station. T ERRY : Excuse me, am I going the right way for the bus station? P ASSER - BY : Let’s see now . . . yes – keep going down here till you reach the traffic lights, then turn right and you’ll see the bus station at the end of the road. T ERRY : Thanks a lot. P ASSER - BY : Quite all right. Language point 19 – genitive In Dialogue 3 the passer-by says: the end of the road not ‘the road’s end ’ But we say John’s book not ‘the book of John ’ So we have two GENITIVE constructions in English: POSSESSIVE : John’s book (X’s Y) OF - PHRASE : the end of the road (the Y of X) 36 Idiom We use the phrase Let’s see now to signal to the person we’re talking to that we need a moment to think. How do we decide which to use? We prefer the possessive (X’s Y): when X is a person: Laura’s exam results when Y belongs to X: Gerry’s hand, Fred’s car but otherwise we generally prefer of (the Y of X) the door of the school the middle of the night the end of the war Exercise 3 Decide which of the two options is correct for each phrase. 1 John’s book The book of John 2 The road’s end The end of the road 3 My sister’s clothes The clothes of my sister 4 The house’s top The top of the house 5 The week’s end The end of the week 6 Alice’s new car The new car of Alice 7 The pool’s bottom The bottom of the pool 8 The night’s middle The middle of the night 9 My brother’s house The house of my brother 10 Our cat’s ears The ears of our cat Dialogue 4 Sasha is lost – she’s looking for the art gallery. In the end, a passer- by notices her. P ASSER - BY : You look lost – can I help? S ASHA : Oh thank you – yes, I am a bit lost, I’m afraid. I’m trying to find the art gallery. P ASSER - BY : That’s miles away! No wonder you look lost! Get the 22 bus from the corner here, and get off at Southwold Terrace. Then turn left into York Avenue, and carry on until you get to the gallery. S ASHA : Could you write it down for me? I’m bound to get lost again otherwise. 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1211 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 4211 37 P ASSER - BY : Certainly . . . [writes it down for Sasha] . . . there you are. S ASHA : Thank you for your help. P ASSER - BY : Not at all. Enjoy the art gallery! S ASHA : I will. Bye! P ASSER - BY : Bye! 38 First left Second left Straight ahead Second right First right Idioms – no wonder means ‘I’m not surprised that . . .’ – I’m bound to . . . means ‘I’m certain to . . .’ or ‘It’s certain that I’ll . . .’ – We use There you are when we give someone something, or when we finish doing something for them. – otherwise means ‘if not’: Hurry up, otherwise we’ll miss the bus. = ‘Hurry up – if we don’t hurry up, we’ll miss the bus.’ Language point 20 – phrasal verbs A PHRASAL VERB is a VERB + ADVERB which together have a special meaning. For example, carry on in Dialogue 4 means continue – it has nothing to do with carry. Phrasal verbs are very important in colloquial English – they are often used instead of more formal ‘standard’ words. Here are some more examples: find out = ‘discover’ turn up = ‘arrive’ let down = ‘disappoint’ fall out = ‘argue’ break down = ‘stop working’ (machine) It’s usually the very common verbs in English that form phrasal verbs – verbs such as: come go put set take turn give let find make and the ADVERBS that go with them to make phrasal verbs are usually adverbs of place or motion: about away in over across back off through along by on under around down out up Remember: the important thing about phrasal verbs is that they often (though not always) have a meaning that is different from the separate meanings of the verb and adverb. For example, turn up means arrive – it has nothing to do with turning, or with motion up – we simply have to learn that turn up is a single idea that means arrive. Another characteristic of phrasal verbs is that many of them have more than one meaning. For example, set off can mean ‘start (a journey)’, but it also means ‘activate’ – you can tell which meaning is intended by considering the rest of the sentence: We set off at nine o’clock (start journey) The burglar set off the alarm (activate) 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1211 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 4211 39 You can buy special dictionaries of phrasal verbs in English, with examples of all their different meanings. You have to be careful where you put pronoun objects (me, him, her, etc. – see Language point 5) with phrasal verbs. In Dialogue 2 the passer-by uses the phrasal verb write down, and says Shall I write it down for you not ‘ Shall I write down it for you’ She puts the object it before the adverb part of the phrasal verb, not after. We’ll look at this aspect of phrasal verbs in more detail in Unit 7. You will meet phrasal verbs in most of the units that follow, and you will find a short section at the end of the unit explaining their meanings. Dialogue 5 This time it’s Helen looking for the tourist information office – it’s a popular place! H ELEN : Excuse me – I’m looking for the tourist information office. Could you tell me how to get there? P ASSER - BY : Yes – go down this road and take the first right, then the second left and you’ll see the information office on the corner. H ELEN : So: down here, first right, second left and it’s on the corner. P ASSER - BY : That’s right! H ELEN : Thanks for your help. P ASSER - BY : Bye. Language point 21 – -ing and the present continuous In Dialogue 5 Helen says I’m looking for the tourist information office – she uses the PRESENT CONTINUOUS rather that the present simple, because she’s describing an action happening now. Compare these: PRESENT SIMPLE Steve drinks coffee (every day) PRESENT CONTINUOUS Steve’s drinking coffee (at the moment) 40 We form the present continuous by adding the verb be to the ING - FORM of the main verb: I’m drinking tea you’re drinking coffee he’s drinking milk she’s drinking orange juice we’re drinking hot chocolate they’re drinking water The ing-form never changes, but the AUXILIARY be does. (Go back and revise this if you need to – Language points 1, 4 and 11.) We form questions and negatives like this: (+) He’s drinking milk (?) Is he drinking milk? (–) He isn’t drinking milk or He’s not drinking milk We form the ing-form of the verb simply by adding ing to the base- form: drink drinking eat eating talk talking But there are some changes sometimes: 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1211 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 4211 41 Spelling rules A base-form ending in a silent e drops this before adding ing: come coming not ‘comeing ’ release releasing not ‘releaseing ’ One-syllable base-forms ending in a single vowel + single b p m n r t double this letter before adding ing: stop stopping not ‘stoping ’ run running not ‘runing ’ slam slamming not ‘slaming ’ hit hitting not ‘hiting ’ rob robbing not ‘robing ’ Exercise 4 Write the ing-form of the following verbs. 1 remove ___________ 2 write ___________ 3 read ___________ 4 hurry ___________ 5 fit ___________ 6 open ___________ 7 fly ___________ 8 chase ___________ 9 pay ___________ 10 ask ___________ Exercise 5 Write the following sentences in the correct present tense. 1 I (eat/’m eating) lunch now. 2 Dave (reads/’s reading) a book every week. 3 These plants (grow/are growing) better outside. 4 This bus always (goes/is going) to the airport. 5 Terry (reads/’s reading) the paper – don’t disturb him. 6 My granny was born in Russia – she (speaks/’s speaking) Russian. Exercise 6 Change these present continuous sentences into questions. 1 She’s going to the library. Is she going to the library? 2 They’re waiting for us. _______________________ ? 3 Dave’s studying Law. _______________________ ? 4 The children are having _______________________ ? breakfast. 5 Jack and Jill are washing _______________________ ? the car. 6 The weather’s improving. _______________________ ? 7 This music is disturbing them. _______________________ ? 8 I’m driving too fast. _______________________ ? 42 Exercise 7 Change these sentences as indicated. 1 These flowers smell very [–] These flowers don’t smell nice very nice 2 I understand you [–] __________________________ 3 She’s asking a question [?] __________________________ 4 These shoes belong to [?] __________________________ Suzie 5 You understand me [?] __________________________ 6 Am I reading the paper? [–] __________________________ 7 Is Gerry reading the [+] __________________________ paper? 8 We aren’t listening [+] __________________________ Language point 22 – get In Dialogue 5, Helen says Could you tell me how to get there? – she means arrive or reach. And in Dialogue 2 Nina says I’ve got it – she means that she has understood. The passer-by in Dialogue 4 tells Sasha to get the 22 bus from the corner here – she means take – and Sasha says she doesn’t want to get lost again – she means become lost. Get is a verb with many different meanings in colloquial English – have a look in a dictionary and see how many are listed. Here are just a few of the more common ones: receive arrive understand take become fetch Using get instead of these (sometimes more formal) verbs is a typical feature of colloquial English. In this unit we also see get as a PHRASAL VERB – here are some very useful ones which you should learn: get on James is getting on the bus (enter vehicle) get off Let’s get off at the next stop (leave vehicle) get up I get up at seven o’clock (rise) every morning 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1211 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 4211 43 . simply have to learn that turn up is a single idea that means arrive. Another characteristic of phrasal verbs is that many of them have more than one meaning (though not always) have a meaning that is different from the separate meanings of the verb and adverb. For example, turn up means arrive – it has nothing