Unit one

Sequence one

Time sequencers

Sequencers are words that organize your writing and speaking, words like first, next, then, after that, and finally. We
often use sequencers in English when we give instructions, describe a process, or tell stories. Using sequencers is a
simple trick that improves your writing and speaking because it organizes your ideas into sections and gives them an
order.

Practice 1
1. Find all of the sequencers in the following sentences:
Here are the steps to make a tasty sandwich. First, you need to buy bread from the bakery. Then, you can go to
the butcher and buy sliced turkey. You can go to the market and buy fresh lettuce and tomatoes. Finally, you can
take all of the ingredients home and prepare the sandwich.

2. First, do your homework. _____________, you can see your friends.

After it After that After this After them

3. Jude's mom has advice for her son:

"First, Jude needs to go to school. Next, he should get a job. ________, he should get married."

Finally Finaly Final Finely

4. Let me tell you about how terrible last night was. _________, I lost my wallet. I was so upset I almost cried.
__________, I spilled a drink on my favourite shirt. The night got even worse. When it was time to leave, I
realized it was raining and I had forgotten my umbrella and didn't have money for a cab. I walked home for one
hour in the rain. What a terrible night.

First, Finally Next, Finally First, After that After that, Next

5. Can we use sequencers when we are describing steps to do something? Yes. No.
6. Can we use sequencers to answer the question "how"? Yes. No.
Intonation

Adverbs of frequency 

They are used to say how often we do things or how often

things happen. Here are some common adverbs of frequency (in
order from most frequent to least frequent):

 always (do 100% of the time - e.g. She always  drinks

coffee in the morning.)

 almost always / nearly always

 often

 usually / frequently

 sometimes (do approximatley 40%-60% of the time - e.g. I  sometimes go for a walk in the evening.)

 occasionally

 rarely / seldom

 hardly ever / almost never

 never (do 0% of the time - e.g. He never passes his English test.)

Adverb position

An adverb of frequency goes before a main verb in a sentence:

 I often play tennis on Sundays. (subject +  adverb + main verb)

However, the exception is when the sentence contains the verb 'to be'. In this case it goes after the verb:

 I am usually hungry after school. (subject + to be + adverb)

In addition, when there is an auxiliary verb (e.g. have, will, must, might, could, would, can, etc.), the adverb is
placed between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

 She can almost always beat her brother at chess. (subject + auxiliary + adverb + main verb)

These adverbs of frequnecy can also be used at the beginning of a sentence:

Usually, normally, often, frequently, sometimes, occasionally

 Sometimes, I go shopping on Sundays.(adverb + subject + main verb)

 Exercises

I. Complete the sentences Use the adverb and the correct form of the verbs in brackets.

1. Our teacher, Mrs Jones, (never / be) late for lessons.

2. I (often / clean) my bedroom at the weekend.

3. My brother (hardly ever / help) me with my homework.

4. I (sometimes / be) bored in the maths lessons.

5. We (rarely / watch) football on TV.

6. You and Tony (never / play) computer games with me.

7. You (usually / be) at the sports centre on Sunday.

8. The school bus (always / arrive) at half past eight.

II. Rewrite the following sentences adding the indicated adverbe bellow

Ex , He listens to the radio. ( often ) He often listens to the radio.

1. They read a book.  They sometimes read a book.

2. Pete gets angry.  Pete never gets angry.

3. Tom is very friendly.  Tom is usually very friendly.

4. I take sugar in my coffee.  I sometimes take sugar in my coffee.

5. Ramon and Frank are hungry.  Ramon and Frank are often hungry.

6. My grandmother goes for a walk in the evening.  My grandmother always goes for a walk in the evening.

7. Walter helps his father in the kitchen.  Walter usually helps his father in the kitchen.

8. They watch TV in the afternoon.  They never watch TV in the afternoon.

9. Christine smokes.  Christine never smokes.

preference

 We use prefer to say we like one thing or activity more than another. We can use a prepositional phrase
with to when we compare two things or actions: I prefer tea to coffe We prefer going by ferry to flying.
 We don’t use than after prefer: She prefers books to magazines.Not:  She prefers books than magazines.
 We can use a to-infinitive or an -ing form after prefer. A to-infinitive is more common.

EX She’s not keen on coffee. She prefers  to drink tea. (or She prefers drinking tea to coffee.)

  We make comparisons using to or rather than, not just than: A lot of young people prefer computer
games to football. or  A lot of young people prefer computer games rather than football

Exercise instructions

Choose the best answer to fill the gap in each of the following:

1. I prefer coffee __________ tea. a. to b. than c. from

2. Although I
love relaxing on
beaches, I think I
prefer
__________ in
the mountains. a. walk b. walking

3.. I prefer trains __________ cars. a. from b. than c. to

4. I'm not a big fan of cars; I prefer __________ by train. a. travelling b. travel
PHONETICS

Spelling is the way we combine letters to write words. The English language has only 26 letters (5 vowels + 21
consonants).

An international phonetic alphabet-pronunciation / PHONETIC SYMBOLS- is used to represent speech sounds

symbolically.

Spelling and pronunciation in English sometimes seem illogical!!! cough-though-through: similar spelling but different
pronunciation. blue-crew-to-too-shoe: different spelling but similar pronunciation.

Long Vowels

A long vowel sounds like the name of the letter. For example, a 'long A' sounds like the letter A. A 'long E' sounds like
the letter E. 

The first way to make a long vowel sound is to put two vowels next to each other. When two vowels appear next to
each other, the word usually makes a long sound of the first vowel. This is the case in words like 'bead,' 'seed,' 'mail,' and
'boat.' Notice how the word 'bead' makes the long E sound and the word 'mail' makes the long A sound.

The second way to make a long vowel sound is to place an E at the end of a word. Placing an E at the end of a word also
creates a long vowel sound. This happens in words like 'bake,' 'bike,' 'mote,' 'mute.'

Notice how the word 'mute' makes the long 'U' sound and the word 'bike' makes the long 'I' sound.

Short Vowels

In many words, vowels do not make a long sound. They make a short vowel sound instead. How can you tell the
difference? Finding short vowels is actually pretty easy: if it doesn't sound like any of the vowel letters, then you know
it's a short vowel! Short vowels usually sound like the following:

 A = 'ah' as in 'apple'

 E = 'eh' as in 'egg'

 I = 'ih' as in 'insect'

 O = 'awe' as in 'bog'

 U = 'uh' as in 'tug
 Exercises

1/ Look carefully at the phoneme for each question. Which of the four following words contains that phoneme?

1.         touch - eight - hope - pool

2.         bag - take - party - phone

3.         father - mother - sister - brother

4.         path - far - cat - seven

5.         fear - pear - each - see

6.         meat - big - its - end

7.         clean - feet - ear - head

8.         first - Terry - pear - seen

Look carefully at the phoneme for each question. Which of the four following words contains that phoneme?

1.         peas - pear - pet - play

2.         hate - fail - word - island

3.         should - shoe - shut - ship

4.         foot - under - shut - box

5.         know - go - apple - top

6.         would - flower - or - wake

7.         grow - York - shout - bath

8.         girl - boy - man - dog

Look carefully at the vowel phoneme for each question. Which of the four following words contains that phoneme?

1. 

   a. month

   b. mouth

   c. math

   d. test

2. 

   a. bean

   b. buy

   c. pine

   d. pill

3. 

   a. poor

   b. took

   c. pure

   d. food

4. 
   a. the

   b. feed

   c. this

   d. then

5. 

   a. call

   b. park

   c. one

   d. cap

6. 

   a. our

   b. lime

   c. crack

   d. game

7. 

   a. stall

   b. floor

   c. ant

   d. out

8. 

   a. fear

   b. bar

   c. beer
 2/ Look carefully at the phoneme for each question. Which of the four following words contains that phoneme?

1.         cousin - pure - university - put

2.         me - I - you - the

3.         sure - do - took - due

4.         think - inch - shush! - ache

5.         teen - pen - said – fil

6.         the - mother - think - church

7.         chimpanzee - shower - father - fox

8.         yes - Japan - Germany - play

WORD STRESS

In English, we do not pronounce each syllable with the same force. In one word, we pronounce one syllable very loudly
and all the other syllables very quietly

To understand word stress, it helps to understand syllables.

Every word is made from syllables.
Each word has one, two, three or more syllables.

Every syllable contains at least one vowel (a, e, i, o or u) or vowel sound.

Word number of
syllables

dog Dog 1

green green 1

quite quite 1

quiet qui-et 2

orange or-ange 2

table ta-ble 2

expensive ex-pen-sive 3

interesting in-tres-ting 3 or
in-te-res-ting 4

unrealistic un-rea-lis-tic 4

unexceptional un-ex-cep-tio- 5
nal

a) One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear two stresses, you have heard two words, not
one word.)

b) The stress is always on a vowel.

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

1. One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two
words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a
secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)
2. We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on
them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the
stress naturally.

A. Stress on first syllable B. Stress on last syllable

Rule examples
rule examples

Most 2-syllable nouns PRESent

Most 2-syllable preSENT
EXport
verbs exPORT
CHIna
deCIDE
TAble
beGIN
Most 2-syllable PRESent
adjectives SLENder
CLEVer
HAPpy

There are many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change with a change
in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it
is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it
becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import, contract and object can
all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.
E. Compound words (words with two parts)

Rule examples

For compound nouns, the stress is on the first part BLACKbird

GREENhouse

For compound adjectives, the stress is on bad-TEMpered

the second part old-FASHioned

For compound verbs, the stress is on the second part underSTAND

overFLOW

C. Stress on penultimate syllable (penultimate = second from end)

rule examples

Words ending in -ic GRAPHic

geoGRAPHic
geoLOGic

Words ending in -sion and - teleVIsion

tion reveLAtion

Exercises

Classify the following words according to their stressed syllables.

‘Market – ‘syllable – mis‘take – con‘nect – im‘probable – ‘answer - ‘wonderful

 Expressing Purpose

“in order to“, “so as to“ and “to“, all of them, have same meaning when they are  expressing purpose.

Examples:

 I will do my best in order to teach you English.

 I will do my best so as to teach you English.

 I will do my best to teach you English.

HOWEVER;

When we want to make infinitive clause negative or negative infinitive, we use “not” before “to”.

( “in order not to“, “so as not to“ and ” not to” )

Examples:

    She worked hard in order not to fail at the class.

   We must burn more wood so as not to be cold.

    He changed his way not to see her.

HOWEVER;

When we make infinitive clauses negative, we generally use “in order to“. 

3. “in order to“, “so as to“ and “to“, all of them, can be used at the beginning of a sentence.

Examples:

 In order to play the game, we must have two computers.

 So as to solve the problem, I must understand the question.

  To get an outside line, you have to dial 9 first.

Exercises

A. Choose the correct expression of purpose:

1) Concentrate on your exercise ___________________________ make any mistakes.

2) You have to register __________________________ participate in the forum.

3) She left work early ___________________________ be at home when he arrives.

4) I will go to university __________________________ continue my studies.

5) She works hard __________________________ earn a living.

6) These men risk their lives ______________________________ we may live more safely.

7) _______________________ you can produce a good essay, you need to edit your writing before you hand it in

. 8) _______________________ wake up the baby, I tiptoed into the room.

9) I am planning to move house ____________________________ be closer to my place of work.

10) I went to his office _________________________ meet him.

Exercises

1) He opened the window. He wanted to let fresh air in.(in order to) He opened the window
________________________________________________

2)I took my camera becauseI wanted to take some photos.(so that) I took my camera
_________________________________________

3)He studied really hard. He wanted to get better marks.(in order to) He studied really
hard___________________________________

4)Jason learns Chinese. His aim is to work in China.( to) Jason learns
Chinese____________________________________

5) I’ve collected money so that you can travel with us (for…….) I’ve collected money.

6)Many people left Turkey in 1960s.They wanted to find jobs in Germany.( in order to)

Both – Either - Neither

 How to use BOTH /’bəʊθ/
Both /’bəʊθ/ is

 used for two people or two things

 used in affirmative sentences

 has a positive meaning

 takes a plural verb

Notice how both is used

1. Both+ noun in the plural Both countries are in Europe

2. Both of+ object pronoun/ plural countable nouns which have a determiner (his,the) before them Both of them/the
countries are in Europe BOTH + (the +) plural noun of the/these/my/,etc + plural noun of us/them, etc + are

3. Before or after the verb They are both in Europe/ they both have a high standard of living

4. Both...and is used when something is true for two people or things Both my sister and my brother are doctors

5. You can use both after an object pronoun Both my sister and my brother are doctors. I love them both.

How to use NEITHER /’naɪðə/ or /’nɪðə/

Neither is used

 to make a negative statement about two people or two things at the same time

 in affirmative sentences

 takes a plural (informal style) or a singular verb (formal style)

Notice how neither is used

1. Neither+ singular countable noun Neither parent came to meet the teacher. (The mother didn’t come and the father
didn’t come.) Neither dress fitted her. (There were two dresses and not one of them fitted her.)

2. Neither of+ object pronoun/ plural countable nouns which have a determiner (his, the) before them.

Neither of them went to school Neither of the boys passed the test NEITHER + sing. noun + is of the/these/my/,etc +
plural noun of us/them, etc + is/are

How to use EITHER /ˈaɪðə(r)/ or /ˈi:ðə(r)/

Either is used

 In affirmative sentences

 To talk about two people, things or groups

Notice how either is used

1. Either + countable noun in the singular: to talk about two choices or possibilities. Either coat is okay, as they both suit
you. (It doesn’t matter which of the two coats you choose)

2. Either of + the, these, those or possessives (my, your) with a plural noun. It can be followed by either a singular or
plural verb: Either of the hotels should do; we don’t mind which. Either of these two bicycles is/are suitable for my
daughter; she doesn't mind which EITHER + sing. noun + is of the/these/my/,etc + plural noun is/are

The easiest way for students to figure out which term to use is to look for a negative word in the sentence (usually “not”).
If there is a negative word, use either. If not, use neither. Tell them to think of the first letter “n” in neither as replacing
“not” or “never.”

 I never liked this movie either.

 You don’t like cheese? I don’t either.

 If you’re not registering for this class, then I won’t either.

 I don’t think either manager is coming to the meeting.

 You don’t like watching sports? Neither do I.

 You don’t want to go out tonight? Yeah, me neither.

 Neither of my closest friends is coming to my party tonight.

 She told me that neither applicant got the position.

EXERCISES

1 Complete the following sentences with both, neither or either.

1. __________ houses are very expensive.

2. __________ of us wanted to go to the cinema.

3. Would __________ of you fancy eating out today?

4. She's __________ shy and quiet.

5. He speaks __________ Spanish nor English.

6. She hasn’t seen __________ of those paintings for ages.

7. __________ of my sisters live in Asturias.

8. __________ of them want to go swimming.

2 Correct the mistakes in the following sentences.

. I haven't seen neither of them since last week.

2. She speaks either Spanish nor French.

3. I like either of them.

4. She's either intelligent and witty.

5. Both of them is married.

6. I don't like both jackets.

7. Either of them came to our party.

8. I want to buy either bags !