Review

Advanced grammar 

Grammar Summary 

1. In active sentences, the agent is in subject position. In passive sentences, the receiver is in the subject position. 

2. Passive sentences often do not mention the doer of action. 

3. A gerund can function as the subject of a sentence. A gerund can be replace by the pronoun it. 

4. When an unreal conditional if-clause contain the verb be, use were for all subjects. 

5. When you use a past wish sentence, you express regret or dissatisfaction about a past situation.

Past Unreal Conditionals and Wishes

Past Unreal Conditionals

• Past unreal conditionals sentences express imaginary situations that were not true in the past.

• Use the past perfect in the if-clause.

• Use would, might, or could + have + past participle in the result clause.

• The contraction of had and would with pronouns is 'd.

• Questions are formed in question word order (the main clause).

Examples:

  If I had owned a car, I would have driven to work. 

If you had asked me, I could have helped you.

Past Wishes

• Past wish sentences refer to past situation that did not occur. They express a desire to change something that happened in past.
• Express regret or dissatisfaction about a past situation.

• Use wish (that) + subject + had (not) + past participle

I wish I had visited the Panama Canal the last year.

Personal opinion: Conditionals can be confusing, but with a good understanding of them, we can talk with more confidence. I think that if I had known these conditionals before,  I could have spoken English very well.

 Paragraph

Dear Teacher May:

I'm writing you because I didn't send the last Excel homework yesterday. I wish I'd written before, but I'd been working late. The last week I was sick and I couldn't do the task. If I had had more time, I would have sent the homework. I don't want to lose the course. Would you mind if I sent the homework today?

Let me know your comments.

Thank you!

Links

Past Unreal Conditionals Exercises

Past Conditionals Review Exercises
Wishes in Past Exercises
More Wishes in Past Exercises

Real and Unreal Conditionals

Present and Future Real Conditionals

• Present and Future Real Conditionals are used to talk about what you normally do in real-life situations.

• Cause-effect: if-clause introduces a possible event (it may or not happens) The main clause presents the result.

• Certainty: Factual conditionals.

• They have a dependent if-clause and the main clause.

• When if-clause is first, it is followed by a comma.

If I'm on time, I walk to work.

• If the main clause is first, there is no comma. The meaning is the same.

I walk to work if I'm on time.

• Both can be negative or only one.

• The verb in if-clause is in the present even if it has a future meaning.

If you go tomorrow, call me.

If you are going tomorrow, call me.

Conditional Summary Chart.

Present Unreal Conditionals

• It is used to talk about what you would do in imaginary situations.

If I had time, I would study Hebrew.

(I don´t have time)

• It uses were for all the subjects. And could, should, might or would in the main clause.

If I were you, I would apologize.

(I'm not you)

Wishes

• It is used when we think of something that we want but probably will not happen.

I wish I knew Tom Cruise.

• It uses the past tense verb in the clause after wish. Be verb always uses were.

She wishes she were the President of the United States.

Personal opinion: I think that conditionals can be confusing for ESL learners because we have to understand the structures used to express situations that may or may not happen, and we have to remember many details too.

Links

Present/Future Real Conditionals Exercises

Future Real or Unreal Conditionals Practice and Lesson

Wishes Practice

Gerunds and infinitives

Gerunds

•All verbs, except modal auxiliaries, have gerund and infinitive forms.

• A gerund can function as the subject of a sentence.

Smoking costs a lot of money. 

• If we want to use a verb after a preposition, it must be a gerund.

I am looking forward to meeting you. 

• Depending on the first verb, it is usually followed by a verb in gerund form. Here is a list of verbs followed by gerunds:

Verbs followed by gerunds

 

Infinitive

• An infinitive can function as the subject of a sentence, but this is not common. In this case, the pronoun it begins the sentence.

It costs a lot to buy a house. 

• Some verbs are followed by infinitive form (to+verb). Here is a list of verbs followed by infinitive form:

Verbs followed by infinitives.

Remember to do or Remember doing

Stop, forget

Gerunds and Infinitives in songs

Personal opinion: I think that this is a hard topic, but with practice, it becomes easier. For me, the best way to learn grammar is using videos, charts, and playing games. I included many games and videos on this blog to explain that issues. I hope it will be useful for you too.

Links

Flash Quiz Gerund or Infinitive  

Verb form Quiz- Gerund or Infinitive   

Practice Gerund vs Infinitive 

Why Students Drop Out?

    Every year many students are dropping out of the educational system, this problem affects young people, especially in their first year in high school. Consequently, when these students leave the school their possibility to get a good job is limited, and the country's development decreases. Dropout rates are increasing, and their causes are economic, social, and individual.

First of all, students are leaving school and going to work. This condition affects families whose parents have low-level of education and therefore have low-income. Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, leave high school without graduating, and as a result, the cycle of poverty continues into the next generation. Furthermore, this problem is greatest in poor and marginal communities. Despite government's efforts to develop programs to prevent early high school dropout rates, the problem persists, nonetheless. For instance, in Costa Rica, 63000 families didn't send their children to school last year. Economics is the main reason for early high school dropout, and programs have not been sufficient to reduce it.

Statistics of unemployment in Costa Rica. El Financiero, 2016

Another important cause for early high school dropout is the lack of importance families place upon education. The lack of support from students' family affects the student's academic performance, moreover when they don't have control over the grades and advance of their children. This situation is even worse when two parents are not in the household, in those cases; students will feel disinterest and apathy about the school. Under those circumstances, parents will lose authority and will turn difficult to set limits for them. Additionally, communication between teachers and parents is essential. If the student feels that his parents value education and the teacher is interested in having the student succeed, then the student will try to improve because he now feels obligated to not disappoint his parents and teachers.

      Finally, demotivation is another cause of dropout. Because of a poor academic performance, they become frustrated and discouraged. For example, in Costa Rica, 12% of students abandon their studies due to this cause every year. Together with lower results, learning problems cause school desertion. Not to mention, an inappropriate evaluation system doesn't consider individual differences; thus, teachers should apply adjustments according to learners' needs. Of course, teaching methods should be interesting and engaged, but topics are repetitive and worrying. For this reason, educational innovations should be introduced in schools to obtain better results and reduce the dropout rate.

     In conclusion, the causes of dropout are diverse. The economic situation that forces students to get a job, lack of support from their families and teachers, and demotivation caused by traditional learning methods should concern everyone. Education institutions, teachers, families, and society must work together to avoid young people continue to leave the formal school and propose solutions to reduce the level of desertion.

Bad luck day

Dear diary:

Yesterday, I visited my friend Mary, and she told me the most incredible bad luck story. The last week was her graduation, and she had been dreaming about this day for months.

She bought a beautiful dress, cut her hair, and took dance classes. Some hours before the party she changed her clothes and wore her new dress, at that instant the misfortune started.

Regardless all the morning was raining, she went to her grandmother's house to show her the dress. On her way to the house, while she was walking on the sidewalk, a car fell into a muddy pool of water on the street and splashed my friend. Unfortunately, her dress was completely wet.

She stopped and thought that she could clean and dry it. Then, she came back to her house, changed her clothes again, and went to the dry cleaning. It was late, but she hoped it was open, sadly, they were shutting down.

Mary ran to her house, washed, and ironed her dress, but at the same time, the phone started to ring. She answered it and forgot what she was doing. When she remembered, her dress was burned.

She decided to wear a sweater, maybe nobody notices the mess. When she bent to pick up her things, accidentally, pushed a bleach bottle, it busted, and the liquid spread over the dress, the fabric started to fade.

Instead, she dressed up, but she realized that her dress had shrunk, her beautiful dress was ruined! My friend took another dress from her closet and went to the party. She didn't want to miss her graduation.

When she came to the place, it was dark, and she never saw a glass door in front of the room. She crashed into the glass, then she heard a crack, the glass split, and she started to bleed.

When some people came to help her, they asked why she was there because the party would be the following day; moreover, she had confused the graduation date!

In the end, Mary has had the most terrible day of her life and five stitches in her forehead, but luckily it was not her graduation day!

Glossary:

Bend: back forward from the waist on down.
Burst:come open suddenly and violently, as if from internal pressure. 
Crack:a sudden sharp noise.
Fade: gradually ceasing to be visible.
Split:separate into parts or portions.
Shrink:reduce in size; reduce physically.
Shut: Become closed.
Spread:a haphazard distribution in all directions. 

Passive voice

Active VS Passive Voice

In active voice, the receiver of the action is the object in a sentence.

He delivers the letters.
 Subject     Verb           Object      

In passive voice, the object of the active sentence becomes the subject.We use the passive voice when we want to emphasize the object than the subject.

The letters are delivered by him.
           Subject                Verb                                 

And when we don't know who or what the subject is, or it is obvious.

The letters are delivered.

 Subject           Verb        

Both have the same meaning. The receiver of the action has a different position, but it is still who receives the action.

.

The passive is formed:

Verb be + Past Participle

We can use it any tense:

Passive verb tenses.

Personally speaking, I think that the use of active voice is clearer than the passive, but the passive voice is necessary to add variety to your writing. We can use it in the case that the performer of the action is unknown or irrelevant, and when the process is the most important thing in the text.

Links

Practice- Rewrite the sentences in passive voice

Practice- Mixed tenses

Video - Passive form and exercises