21 April 2009

Reported Speech - Tense Chart

Basic Tense Chart

present simple
I'm a teacher.
past simple
He said he was a teacher
present continuous
I'm having lunch with my parents.
past continuous
He said he was having lunch with his parents.
present perfect simple
I've been to France three times.
past perfect simple
He said he had been to France three times.
present perfect continuous
I've been working very hard.
past perfect continuous
He said he had been working very hard.
past simple
I bought a new car.
past perfect
He said he had bought a new car.
past continuous
It was raining earlier.
past perfect continuous
He said it had been raining earlier.
past perfect
The play had started when I arrived.
past perfect
NO CHANGE POSSIBLE
past perfect continuous
I'd already been living in London for five years.
past perfect continuous
NO CHANGE POSSIBLE



Other verb forms also sometimes change:

will
I'll come and see you soon.
would
He said he would come and see me soon.

can
I can swim under water for two minutes.

could
He said he could swim under water for two minutes.
must
All tickets must be bought in advance.
had to
He said that all tickets had to be bought in advance.
shall
What shall we do about it?
should
He asked what we should do about it.
may
May I smoke?
might
He asked if he might smoke.


valenciaenglish.netfirms.com

Exercises - Reported Speech / Statements


Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3

Exericse 4
Exercise 5
Exercise 6
Exercise 7
Exercise 8
Exercise 9
Exercise 10
Exercise 11
Exercise 12
Exercise 13
Exercise 14
Exercise 15
Exercise 16

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esl
edu.ge.ch
english-4u.de
ompersonal.com.ar
kico.4u.de

3 April 2009

Happy Easter!

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

Reported Speech - Grammar


Aussagesätze

Wird ein Satz in die indirekte Rede gesetzt, gibt es zwei Unterscheidungen.

1. Wenn der Einleitungssatz in der
Gegenwart steht, dann bleibt die Zeitform der direkten Rede auch in der indirekten Rede erhalten. Wird ein Satz in die indirekte Rede gesetzt, gibt es zwei Unterscheidungen.

Beispiel:

Direkte Rede: Susan: "I work in an office."

Indirekte Rede: Susan says that she works in an office. (Der Einleitungssatz ist hier: Susan says)



2. Wenn der Einleitungssatz in der
Vergangenheit steht, dann wird die Zeitform verändert.

Beispiel:

Direkte Rede: Susan: "I work in an office."

Indirekte Rede: Susan said that she worked in an office. (Der Einleitungssatz ist hier: Susan said)

Die Zeitformen werden dabei wie folgt geändert:

Verschiebung von Zeitformen
vom ins
Simple Present Simple Past
Simple Past Past Perfect
Present Perfect
Past Perfect
will would
Progressive Formen
am/are/is was/were
was/were had been
has been
had been

Verschiebung von Zeitformen
von in
Peter: "I work in the garden." Peter said that he worked in the garden.
Peter: "I worked in the garden." Peter said that he had worked in the garden.
Peter: "I have worked in the garden."
Peter: "I had worked in the garden."
Peter: "I will work in the garden." Peter said that he would work in the garden.
Peter: "I can work in the garden." Peter said that he could work in the garden.
Peter: "I may work in the garden." Peter said that he might work in the garden.
Peter: "I would work in the garden."
(could, might, should, ought to)
Peter said that he would work in the garden.
(could, might, should, ought to)
Progressive Formen
Peter: "I am working in the garden." Peter said that he was working in the garden.
Peter: "I was working in the garden." Peter said that he had been working in the garden.
Peter: "I have been working in the garden."
Peter: "I had been working in the garden."

Wenn im Satz eine Zeitangabe steht, dann muss auch die geändert werden.

Peter: "I worked in the garden yesterday."
Peter said that he had worked in the garden the day before.

Verschiebung von Adverbien

this (evening) that (evening)
today/this day that day
these (days) those (days)
now then
(a week) ago (a week) before
last weekend the weekend before / the previous weekend
here there
next (week) the following (week)
tomorrow the next/following day

Anmerkungen:
In einigen Fällen ist es nicht nötig, die Zeitformen zu verschieben, wenn z.B. Aussagen immer noch zutreffen.
John: "My brother is at Leipzig university."
John said that his brother was at Leipzig university. oder
John said that his brother is at Leipzig university.

oder wenn es sich um allgemein gültige Aussagen handelt.

Mandy: "The sun rises in the East."
Mandy said that the sun rose in the East. oder
Mandy said that the sun rises in the East.

Source: englisch-hilfen.de

29 March 2009

Daylight Savings Time


Tonight we had to put our clocks ahead. Daylight Savings Time starts.
Daylight Savings Time is a term we use to describe a system intended to save daylight where we either turn back the clock or set it ahead one hour.
The idea was first put into practice by the German government during World War I.
Soon after, the United Kingdom followed and then US Congress made it official.
Experts say, we save a lot of energy and have more time to do our outdoor duties.
A lot of people get confused when they turn the clock back or set it ahead.
To help this there is a saying – Spring ahead, fall back, which means, in the spring we spring ahead one hour, and in autumn we fall back an hour.
Now hurry up and set your clocks ahead!

3 March 2009

Song: The Alvin Show - I've been working on the railroad

Now here is a funny song where you can practise the Present Perfect Progressive.

Present Perfect Progressive/Continuous - Exercises


Exercise 1: Choose the correct answer.
Exercise 2: Fill in the correct tense.

Exercise 3: Complete the sentences.
Exercise 4: Write the correct tense.
Exercise 5: Complete the text.
Exercise 6: Present Perfect Progressive - Sentences and Questions.
Exercise 7: Complete with the Simple or Progressive Present Perfect.
Exercise 8: Click on the answer you think is correct.
Exercise 9: Fill in the right tense.
Exercise 10: Final test



Source:
smic.be

usingenglisch.com
english-4u.de
englishpage.com
tolearnenglish.com
learn4good.com
esl.about.com

8 February 2009

A Glimpse on the USA - Project

Photo: marinifamily.files.wordpress.com


July Fourth


July Fourth is the birthday of the United States. It is a national holiday. Another name for July Fouth is Independence Day.
Americans celebrate July Fourth as Independence Day because on July 4. 1776, the original thirteen colonies declared their independence from England.
Before 1776, the King of England ruled the thirteen colonies in America. The colonists were angry with the King because of taxes. They wanted their independence from England. A war started in 1775 between the colonists and soldiers from England. The colonists won the war. They wanted to say why they wanted their independence or freedom from England. So they chose Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence.
On July 4, 1776, the leaders of the colonies signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It said that all people were equal and had the right to live in freedom. A new nation was born, People rang bells and fired guns for the birth of the United States of America.
Today, July Fourth is celebrated in many different ways.
During the day, many people get together with friends and family members for picnics. Many cities have parades with bands in the streets. At night there are noisy fireworks. These beautiful fireworks of different colors light up the sky all across the country.

Armin




Photo: all-inspirational.com


Theodore Roosevelt


Theodore Roosevelt was the twenty-sixth president of the United States. He was president from1901 to 1909. He was a very intelligent man. Theodore was a boxer, a soldier, a rancher, and an explorer.
He was not strong when he was a boy. He had problem with his breathing. Roosevelt had asthma. His father wanted him to be strong. After he became president, Roosevelt kept his body strong. One day, another boxer hit him in the eye. After that accident, Theodore became blind in one eye. His nickname was “Teddy”. When he was president, he often went hunting. One day he went hunting with some friends and saw a small bear. He did not shoot the bear and he said, the little bear must go free.
The next day the story of the small bear was in the newspapers. Soon people called toy bears for children “teddy bears”.
Then he went to South America to explore places that nobody knew about. Everybody loved energy.

Teresa

Photo: sonofthesouth.net

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States. He was born in Kentucky in 1809. His family was very poor. He didn’t go to school. When Lincoln was a little boy, he worked on his family’s farm and taught himself to read and write. Later, Lincoln studied law and he became a lawyer. After that, he became a politician.

Everybody liked Abraham Lincoln because he was intelligent and hardworking. He wanted to be good at everything he did. He said that he wanted to win the “race of life”.
Lincoln became president in 1860. In 1861, there was a war between the North and de South of the United States. The people in the South wanted a separate government from the United States. The North wanted the United States to stay together as one country. Lincoln was the leader of the North. In the war, brother killed brother. The Civil War was four years long. The North won the Civil War. The war ended on April 9, 1865. Six days later, President Lincoln and his wife went to the theater. Inside the theater, a man went behind the president and shot him in his head. The man’s name was John Wilkes Booth. He was a supporter of the South. Lincoln died the next morning.

Melanie

Klick on the photo to enlarge and read the text.
Photo: infinitygoods.files.wordpress.com


Martin Luther King, Jr.


Martin Luther King, Jr., was a black clergyman from Atlanta, Georgia. When King was a child, he learned that black people and white people did not mix in public places. Black and white children went to different schools. This kind of separation is called segregation. He was a good student and went to college at a young age. He was only fifteen years old, when he finished college, he began to fight segregation. He did not believe in violence. He helped black people to protest in peace. King also wanted equality for everybody. He wanted black and white men and women to have an equal chance in the United States. This is called the civil rights movement. In 1963, King was the leader of the civil rights march on Washington, D.C. Thousands of people listened to his famous speech. It begins, “I have a dream.” In 1968, an assassin killed King. He was only thirty-nine years old. His birthday, Janury 15, is a national holiday in the United States.

Mihriban, Monika

clergyman – Pfarrer
public – öffentlich
separation – Trennung
segregation – Rassentrennung
violence – Gewalt
equality - Gleichberechtigung
civil rights movement – Bürgerrechtsbewegung
speech – Rede
Nobel Peace Prize – Friedensnobelpreis
award – Auszeichnung
assassin - Auftragskiller



Photo: upload.wikimedia.org


Mount Rushmore


Mount Rushmore is mountain in the state of South Dakota.
The faces of four American presidents – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt – are carved into the mountain.
These faces, known as the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, are the largest carved figures in the world. The memorial is the work of the sculptor Gutzon Borglum. The state of South Dakota chases Borglum for the job because he was famous for his huge statues. But, even for Borglum, this memorial was a challenge. Borglum began work in 1927. The only way to get up the mountain was on foot or horseback. And Borglum and his helpers hat to make the trip hundreds of times just to bring up the equipment they needed. Borglum had prepared a smaller model of the faces. Workers then used drills and dynamite to remove rock and create the faces. The Mount Rushmore Memorial took fourteen years to complete. Borglum died shortly before it was done. His son finished to work. Finally, in 1941 the memorial was opened to the public. People were amazed. The faces of the presidents looked so real, and the are about sixty feet high.

Franzi


Photo: oneworldnews.files.wordpress.com

The Pentagon

The Pentagon is a building in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. It has the offices of the U.S. Department of Defense. The Department of Defense includes the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard.
The word pentagon comes from the Greek penta, which means “five”. A pentagon is a figure with five sides. The Pentagon has five rings. The rings are inside each other. Each ring has five sides. The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world. It has seventeen miles of halls. People can get lost in the Pentagon. So the walls on each floor are a different color (brown, green, red, gray, and blue). This helps people to know where they are. There are also many maps in the halls!
The Pentagon is so big that it is like a city. Almost 30.00 people work there. The Pentagon has its own doctors, dentists, and nurses. It has its own banks and stores. It has a post office, a fire department, and a police department. It also has an important center for communications. This center guards the country. It is hundreds of feet under the ground. The Pentagon even has its own radio and TV stations.

Niki


The Government of the United States

The American President is one oft the most powerful men in the world.
He can make war or peace .
He can touch the lives of millions in many different countries. But the President cannot do just what he wants.
The Congress must agree first. In some ways, the United States is like fifty small countries and not one large one.
Every state has its own governot, its own police, and its own laws.
The government of the whole country works from Washington, the capital city. Congress has two parts, the Senate an the House of Representatives. Like the senators, they can make new laws. Americans choos a new President every four years. In America the President is the Head of State. He makes the most important devisions and chooses the members of his cabinet who will help him to govern the country.

Stefanie



The White House


Originally the White House was grey and was called the Presidential Palace.
The architect James Hoban won a contest which was held to pick a design for the president’s home. The president’s home was an important part of the plan. President Washington never lived in the Presidential Palace. The first president who lived there was John Adams and his wife. Mrs. Adams often complained about the cold in the Presidential Palace. Fifty fireplaces were not enough to keep the building warm. In war the British army destroyed the Presidential Palace. After the war James Hoban rebuilt the Presidential Palace in white.

Albert, Sebastian

20 January 2009

Inauguration Day - Barrack Obama


Today, January 20th, 2009, Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. Inauguration means "Amtseinführung/Vereidigung".


Winning the White House
When the results came in, 67 million people voted for Barack and 58 million voted for John McCain. Barack won 365 electoral votes and John McCain won 173 votes. At least 270 electoral votes are needed to become President of the United States.

Barack Obama won the election. On that cold, windy night in a park in Chicago called Grant Park, Barack, Joe Biden, and their families were greeted warmly with cheers and tears from thousands of supporters gathered to celebrate his victory. After he won, Barack gave a speech that was shown on televisions around the country and around the world. He began his speech with these words:

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our Founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

The people in the park cheered. Many people in all parts of the country, as well as the world, were happy to have witnessed this moment in American history. Barack continued his speech by saying that even though being President is not easy, he would do his best for the country and for the American people while he is President.

Facts about Barack Obama
The name Barack means “blessing from God”
He is left-handed.
His favorite music includes artists like The Fugees, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and Kanye West.
He won a Grammy award for the audio recording of his book Dreams from My Father.
He has authored three very successful books.
According to his official Facebook profile, his favorite TV show is Sportcenter.
When he was a child, he wanted to become an architect.
He collects comic books.
When he lived in Indonesia, he had two baby crocodiles, chickens, ducks and a gibbon named Tata as his pets.
He loves to cook chili.

Barack Obama will be the first African American president, and one of the youngest presidents ever elected. He has a wife, Michelle, and two daughters, Malia, 10, and Natasha (called Sasha), 7.


Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father came to America from Kenya, which is a country in Africa. His parents, Ann and Barack, met when they were students at the University of Hawaii. Since Barack had the same name as his father, young Barack went by the nickname “Barry”.

After his dad finished college, he went back to Kenya, leaving his mother to take care of Barry. In 1967, when Barry was six years old, his mother married a student from Indonesia and they moved to Indonesia with him. They had many pets, including baby crocodiles and a gibbon, which is a type of monkey.

While they were in Indonesia, his mother had another baby. Her name was Maya. Right after she was born, Barry’s mother got divorced, and Barry, his mother, and his new baby sister moved back to Hawaii.

Soon, Barry’s mother had to go back to Indonesia to work. Her job was studying how farmers lived and how their lives could be made better. When she went away, Barry lived with his grandparents. He called them Gramps and Toot, and he was very close with them and his sister.

Growing up, Barry enjoyed spending time on the beach, fishing and bodysurfing. He was a really good student. He went to an expensive private school even though his family didn’t have much money to pay for it. His family felt that the best thing they could do for Barry was to give him a good education, so they worked hard to pay for his school.

Barry earned good grades and played on his high school basketball team. He loved playing basketball as a kid, and President-Elect Obama still loves to play whenever he can. Even when he was campaigning for president, he took time out every day to shoot hoops with his friends.


The life of Barrack Obama in pictures

Have a look at all American Presidents so far.

US Election - Facts
Every four years the people of the United States choose a new President.
You have to be thirty-five years old to run for President.
Last year's (2008) Republican Candidate was Barack Obama. He became President.
Last year's (2008) Democratic Candidate was John McCain.
Candidates try to get people to vote for them by giving speeches and shaking hands.
The political parties choose their candidate at their conventions.
The candidates have debates where they answer questions about the issues that are important to the people in our country.
On the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, people go to the polls to vote.


Today, January 20th, 2009
Barack Obama will be sworn in as president just days before the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, and his inauguration theme will reflect the timing: "A New Birth Of Freedom," a phrase from the Gettysburg Address.


This is the Oath of Office for President (US Constitution, Article II, Section 1)

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."



The Emmy Winning video "Yes We Can" is a collage style music video inspired by a speech delivered by Barack Obama following the 2008 New Hampshire primary, derived from similar union catch cries. The song was released on February 2, 2008 by the Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am on Dipdive.com and also on YouTube.




Lyrics:

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots;
A President who chose the moon as our new frontier;
And a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.
Yes we can.
We know the battle ahead will be long,
But always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
(We want change.)
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics
They will only grow louder and more dissonant.
We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check.
We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America,
There has never been anything false about hope.
Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA;
We will remember that there is something happening in America;
That we are not as divided as our politics suggests;
That we are one people;
We are one nation; and together,
We will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three Words that will ring from coast to coast;
From sea to shining sea:
Yes We Can.

15 January 2009

Exercises: Present Perfect Progressive/Continuous


Now do some exercises on Present Perfect Progressive:

Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
Exercise 4
Exercise 5






Source:
ego4u

englisch-hilfen.de

learnforgood.com
englishclub.com

Present Perfect Progressive/Continuous


Verlaufsform der Vergangenheit

Verwendung:

1. Vorgänge begannen in der Vergangenheit und dauern bis in die Gegenwart an
- meistens mit since (Zeitpunkt) oder for (Zeitraum/Zeitspanne)

I have been waiting for you for three hours. (Ich warte schon seit drei Stunden auf dich.)


2. Handlungen, die gerade abgeschlossen wurden und bei denen deren Verlauf betont wird

She has been watching too much television (Sie hat sich zu viel fern gesehen.)


Signalwörter

all day, the whole day, since, for



Bildung

have/has + been + Infinitiv + -ing


Beispiele

Bejahte Sätze:

I have been playing volleyball.
I've been playing volleyball.
You have been playing volleyball.
You've been playing volleyball.

Verneinte Sätze:

I have not been playing handball.
I've not been playing handball.
I haven't been playing handball.
You have not been playing handball.
You've not been playing handball.
You haven't been playing handball.

Fragen:

Have I been playing handball? Have you been playing handball?