Let's sing : Alright by Supergrass

Hello!

My hols have begun but I keep my writing pot rolling hehehe. Well, this week I want to use a song for you to practise your English. It's a bit old but it is catchy and I love it. I'm sure Alright by Supergrass probably won't ring a bell, but if you listen to it, I'm pretty sure you'll have listened to it before. Anyway, as usual I propose some exercises related to the song. Try to do them by yourself and, at the bottom of this post, you will find the answers. I hope you enjoy the song (and the exercises).

1. Listen to the song Alright by Supergrass and complete it with some adjectives / nouns and everyday actions / verbs. If it's too difficult, I'll give you some clues by posting some photos below...

We are _______ (1) , we _______ (2) green, keep our ______ (3) nice and________ (4)

______   _____  _______ (5) , see the sights, feel alright

We _____    ____ (6) , we _____   ____ (7) , smoke a fag, put it out

_____________ (5) , see the sights, feel alright 

Are we like you, I can't be sure?

Of the scene as she turns

We are strange in our worlds 

But we are __________ (1) , we get by, can't go mad, ain't got time

________ (8) around, if we like but we're alright

Got some cash, bought some wheels, took it out, 'cross the fields

Lost control, ________ (9) a wall but we're alright 

Are we like you, I can't be sure?

Of the scene, as she turns

We are strange in our worlds 

But we are ______ (1) , we ______ (2) green, keep our ______ (3) nice and _________(4)

_________________ (5), see the sights, feel alright (Chorus) 

Are we like you, I can't be sure?

Of the scene, as she turns

We are strange in our worlds.

Chorus

  

 

2. Explain the meaning of the following phrasal verbs used in the song:

a) Put out

b) Get by

c) Sleep around

3. Explain the meaning of the following expressions:

a) Smoke a fag

b) Run green

c) See the sights

4. What is this song about?

Answers

Exercise 1:

1. young 2. run 3. teeth  4. clean  5. see our friends 6. wake up  7. go out  8. sleep  9. hit

Exercise 2:

- Put out= Extinguish a fire (in this case, a cigarette)

- Get by= To manage oneself to do something, e.g. get by on €300 a month.

- Sleep around = To have sexual relationships with many different partners

Exercise 3:

- Smoke a fag= Smoke a cigarette in informal English.

- Run green = Sell pot (marijuana) or other types of similar drugs.

- See the sights = Go sightseeing / See the important things in a place

Exercise 4:

This song explores the world of youngster. They are very different from fully adult people and they do some typical teenage-things (sell, drugs, smoke, have sex, hang out with friends...); but, in spite of that, they are fine, they survive and they are good people; they are just different. 

Well, did you enjoy this song? Did you remember yourself being a youngster, hanging out with friends without serious responsibilities? Oh, those days,...What marvelous days they were indeed! Anyway, if you want to keep practising your English with songs, do not hesitate to do so by clicking on the links provided: Supergrass's Alright; The Script's The Hall of Fame; Jessie J's Price Tag; The Police's Every Breath You Take; U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For; Bruno Mar's Don't Give Up; The Cure's Friday I'm In Love; Smash Mouth's I'm A Believer; Michael Bublé's It's A Beautiful Day; songs related to peace; Cold Play's Paradise; Christmas carols; Christmas carols II; Tracy Chapman's Fast Car; Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know; Happy Birthday songs.

Easter is practically here, so try to fully enjoy it! 

See you around.

Minimal pairs

Another week has gone by again and here I am making my contribution with yet another entry on the quirks of English. Today's entry will be devoted to an English quirk related to pronunciation, no other than minimal pairs. As I mentioned in my post last week, one letter changes everything in English. 

So, what are minimal pairs, then? Minimal pairs are two different words that are distinguished by one single phoneme, for example, 'pet' and 'bet' are minimal pairs since they are distinguished by the initial sound. In other words, they are words that are pronounced similarly but not equally. It is this quirk that makes English pronunciation a bit hard for Spaniards.

In today's entry I will deal with with some minimal pairs involving vocalic sounds. Let's start:

1. [æ] vs. [˄]

The first sound is halfway between a and e, whereas the second sound is pronounced with the central part of the tongue, with the tongue up and it is a bit darker. The first sound usually represented by the grapheme <a>, while the second sound is never represented with the grapheme <a>, being usually represented by graphemes <o>, <u> or <ou>. There are countless minimal pairs involving these sounds:

[æ]        [˄]

Cat       Cut

Hat       Hut

Cap      Cup

Bat       But

App       Up

Crash   Crush

Mast     Must

                                        Ran      Run

                                       Lack      Luck

                                         Fan      Fun

2. [æ]  vs. [a:]

The second sound is longer than the first one. Let' see examples of these minimal pairs:

[æ]            [a:]

Cat            Kart

Pat            Part

Ant            Aunt

Bat            Bart

Pack         Park

Lack          Lark

Cap           Carp

Fat             Fart

3. [e] vs. [3:]

Once again, length is the distinctive feature here, the second sound being longer than the first one:

[e]            [3:]

Fest          First

Head        Heard

Wed          Word

Ten           Turn

Lent          Learnt

Debt          Dirt

Slept         Slurped 

Best          Burst

4. [ɪ] vs. [i:]

This is one of the hardest distinction for Spanish speakers of English. Let's delve into this:

[ɪ]            [i:]

It              Eat

            Fit            Feet / Feat

Sit            Seat

Pitch        Peach

Bitch        Beach

Shit          Sheet

Phil          Feel

           Still          Steel / steal

           Mitt           Meat / meet

This          These

Grin          Green

Mill            Meal

Ship          Sheep

      Pick           Peak   

As you can see the short sound is normally represented by letter <i>, whereas the long sound is frequently represented by letters <ee> or <ea>. In addition, before sound [k], the short sound is followed by the letters <ck>, but the long sound is followed by letter <k>.

5. [ɒ] vs. [ɔ]

The fisrt sound is shorter than the second and is frequently represented by letter <o>. The second sound, by contrast, is longer and frequently represented by letters <or>, <all>, or <au>:

[ɒ]           [ɔ:]

Pot          Port

Shot        Short

Moll         Mall

Toll          Tall

Cot         Caught

Bot          Bought

Cod         Cord

Cost        Coursed

Poll          Paul

6. [Ʊ] vs. [u:]

These sounds are hard to distinguish. Length is once again an important factor; The first sound appear before a double consonant.

[Ʊ]                 [u:]

Pull                Pool

Full                Fool

Would           Wood

                                                   Look               Luke

Well, English pronunciation may seem hard, but don't despair! Try to remember some of these minimal pairs and visit my entry on English pronunciation. If you want to practise, this exercise will make you sweat. You can contribute to the blog and leave comments with more minimal pairs! See you around!

One letter changes everything in English - English flexibility never ceases to surprise us

Here I am again with yet one other post about another English quirk. I couldn't help but notice that English is quite a flexible language, indeed. Some of my students consider that native English-speakers won't make an effort to understand Spanish pronunciation, in other words, they are so lazy to try an understand foreigners. I always tell them that's not true and this is why I'm writing today's entry, to cast some light on this matter. 

Well, this post intends to show you that English is so flexible that just by changing one simple vowel or sound, we have a very different word, especially in three-letter words. 

Let's take the word 'pat' (gently tapping someone)

We change the <a> into <e>, and we have a very different word: pet


Vowel change, again, now, let's try with vowel <i>, shall we? Does it work? Yes, we got the word 'pit'


Amazing, isn't it? Is it possible to continue? Indeed,, if we change letter <i> into <o>, we have 'pot':

Last but not least, we can create a new word if we change the <o> into <u>, yeah, 'put':



Wow! By changing one vowel we can have five different words! Isn't is quirky? As you can see these words have completely different meanings! 

Can we try these logic again? Of course we can!

                    Bat                                       Bet                                             Bit

 
         Bot                                    But

This process can be repeated again and again:



                Bad                                    Bed                                          Bid

                  Bod                                       Bud

We can make this go for ages :


                Tan                                           Ten                           Tin

                 Ton                                            Tun

Wow! Can you keep imagining? Sometimes this, does work on the five vowels, but it works on four of them :
Pan     pen       pin       pun
Hat      hit         hot       hut
Sat       set       sit        sot
Man      men     min      mun 

On top of this, this is not exclusive of three letter words :

                Pack                                     Peck                                                Pick

           Pock                               Puck

             Fast                                        Fest                                         Fist

Consonants are not to be left out of the equation, though. In English by changing one simple consonant you can create tons of different words:
Imagine : bag                 bight              bang               bat
                fag                  light                fang               cat
                jag                  might              gang              fat
                lag                  right                hang              hat
                mag                sight               rang               mat
                nag                 tight                sang              pat
                rag                  fight                tang               rat
                tag                                                               sat
                wag                                                             VAT


So, start thinking in English. Take a word and change its vowels or consonants to see what happens, experiment with the English language. To finish this post, I'll be sharing with you an example of the illogical English pronunciation. 
See you around.

English lexis can be really specific: verbs of sight and vision II

Happy to see you all again! Last week, I wrote an entry with expressions related to sight and vision and today I intend to continue (and finish) that entry with some more expressions related to this particular English quirk. Last week I mentioned some verbs beginning with g- and now I'll finish with some more verbs related to vision and some complex expressions related to this particular subject, so keep your eyes open! 

1. Some other verbs related to vision :
a) eye: To look at someone with attention from top to bottom, to examine, e.g. he eyed the two suspects to see if they were hiding something. 

b) peek: To look at something quickly or secretly, e.g. peek at the money stored in a safe box.

c) Peep: To look at something through a small opening.



d) Peer: To look hard at something which is difficult to see. 


e) Squint: To look with the eyes partly closed.


f) Scrutinize: To examine in detail, observe with attention.


g) Skim: To read quickly, to have a quick look.


h) Scan: To read a text for specific information.



i) Contemplate: To look at something closely, for example, contemplate the sea. 


j) Spot: To locate something specific with your eyes, for instance, spot Waldo.


k) Sight: To see something from a long distance, e.g. sight something from a ship.


l) Witness: To see somethings happen by oneself, as in witness a robbery. 


2. Formal synonyms of the verb 'see'
Some verbs can be used in formal English to express vision:
- Regard
- View
- Behold

3. Complex expressions related to vision

-Take notice = notice, observe
- Have a look at / take a look at/ take a gander at= look at
- Lay eyes on someone = eye someone, observe someone
- Catch sight of = See something
- Catch a glimpse of = Have a quick look at something.
- Open your eyes = Pay attention
- In the blink of an eye = Very quickly

Well, you see? English is quite an interesting language with a wide variety of expressions related to vision, so enrich your language and use them all!