Love is in the air....

In a few days it will be the most
romantic day of the year...
St. Valentine's Day!




I know the boys of the class will react like this...

... but we don't care girls, right? 😉

Everyone knows it is celebrated on February 14th  , but how did St. Valentine become associated to love and romance? Let's watch this video to find it out (scoprirlo)!

So... can you answer  to the following questions in the comments?

1. When did St. Valentine live?
2. What strange law did the Emperor Claudius make and why?
3. How did St. Valentine break the law?

Did you know that in the UK they spend about £503 on cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts for Valentine's day? But that's not the only interesting fact about this day that you should ( dovreste) know!

In Japan, Valentine's Day is a day when women give dark chocolate
to men. While (mentre) the rest of the world's men are expected to give presents to their special ladies, it's the other way around (tutto al contrario) in Japan!
Don't worry though (tuttavia) because men are expected to give gifts of white chocolate to women on March 14th. This is known as White Day!

People are increasingly (sempre di più) buying Valentine's Day presents for their pets! Americans spent about  $700 million on presents for their petson Valentine's Day in 2015. 

In Finland, Valentine's day is more of a day for friends. It is a time to get together with your friends, have a small party and enjoy each other's company. people also give cards and small gifts to their friends but this doesn't have a romantic meaning. It shows you care about your good friends. 

And finally, love is deeply (profondamente) related to music.... 

do you agree (siete d'accordo)?

According to you, what's the most romantic song ever? 

Asking for and giving directions

As I said in class, in this post I'm going to show you some videos that you can use to practice the function "Asking for and giving directions".
In the first one, you'll find some useful (utili) prepositions.

The second one will show you a practical situation: a guy is asking for an ATM (bancomat) and a Pizza Restaurant! Pay attention to the senteces (frasi) he uses to ask for directions and the way people answer him!

And the last video is the one some of my students created a year ago... there are some mistakes (errori)... Let's see if you are able to spot (individuare) them!

Hope you had fun watching them! 😏

Blue Monday!

Do you know today's "Blue Monday"?

According to popular belief (credenza popolare), today's "Blue Monday", the most depressing day of the year!!!! 😲

Blue Monday falls (cade) on the third Monday in January when you are apparently most likely (con molta probabilità) to find yourself cold, poor, miserable and fantasising about a week in the sun...

The phrase Blue Monday was actually coined (coniata) in 2005, as part (come parte) of an ad campaign for Sky Travel, which claimed (ha affermato) to have calculated the date using an equation!

There's also a song entitled "Blue Monday", but actually I found it... a little bit depressing! 😁

Keep calm and wait because they start singing after a while (dopo un po')!

What do you think about it? Did you like it? 😅 But above all (soprattutto) what do think of Blue Monday? Is it real? Did you feel particulary sad today?  According to you, why did they choose this particular time of the year?

And just to stay in theme  (per rimanere in tema) below you can find 10 different words you can use to say sad in English!

Indefinite pronouns and its compounds...

Hi guys! Another rule we will find in the unit we're studying is related to (si riferisce a) SOME, ANY and NO compounds (composti).I'm sure "everybody" has read or listened them in songs or other kind of texts, but, just to be sure, let's revise (rivediamo) the indefinite some, any and no first.

We form the compounds by adding -one, -body, -thing, -where to some, any and no as you can see in the picture below!

We use them exactly as their "parents" some, any and no

There is someone  (qualcuno) here > positive

I won't tell your secret to anyone (nessuno) > negative

Is there anything (qualcosa) to eat? > question

Nobody  (nessuno) was at home when I called > negative meaning with positive verb

It's very easy! 

You could also find interesting taking a look at this video! Enjoy it!

Anyway (comunque), don't worry... we'll see them together in class!

MUST

In the sixth unit of your textbook you are going to learn (imparerete) how to use the modal verb MUST.

But, first of all (prima di tutto), what is a modal verb?

A modal verb is also known (conosciuto) as a helping verb. It gives additional information about the main verb (verbo principale) that follows it. CAN is also a modal verb!

Its structure is very easy!

We use MUST to show two things: necessity or possibility.

NECESSITY

We can use ‘must’ in a sentence (frase) to talk about something we need to do (abbiamo bisogno di fare). For example, ‘I must get my hair cut before my meeting tomorrow’. In this sentence, we can see it is important for me to get my hair cut before the meeting. Maybe I want to make a good impression on my boss!

Usually when we use the word ‘must’ it is because the speaker has decided something is necessary to do.

• You must give up (smettere) smoking, it's bad for you.
• You must drive carefully.
• You must study the last two chapters before the test.

POSSIBILITY

When we are talking about possible causes of a situation or action, we can use the word ‘must’ to show we are fairly (abbastanza) sure of the reason behind something. For example:

The cookies are missing (sono spariti). Sally must have taken them (li deve aver presi).

In this example, the speaker is sure that Sally is the person who took the cookies. Maybe Sally loves cookies or has a history of taking food from the kitchen. Whatever (qualsiasi) the reason, the speaker has decided that it was Sally who took the cookies.

• Look at all of that snow. It must be really cold outside.
• It's five in the morning and you still haven't gone to bed? You must be tired!
• Jack must be home. I heard a noise coming from his room.

MUSTN'T

The negative is MUST NOT = MUSTN'T and refers to prohibition

• You mustn't use your smartphone while (mentre) you are driving.
• You must not open the gift until (fino a) it is your birthday.
• We must not tell anyone.

You can take a look at the following video for more details (dettagli)

And now... try to do some exercises! Copy or print (stampare) and paste (incollare) them on your exercise books. Write in the comments if you have any doubts... and keep an eye on the blog because in the next days I'm going to publish something else!




https://elt.oup.com/student/project3rdedition/level3/unit6/grammar/exercise2?cc=global&selLanguage=en


http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/modals/must_not2.htm

It's Christmas time!

Do you celebrate Christmas?   I really love this period of the year! My favourite things are:

• Being with my family
• The delicious food made by my mum
• Christmas songs 
• Decorating the Christmas tree

What's your favourite thing about it? Do you like to decorate your house? How do you decorate your room and your home? 

Have you ever thought (avete mai pensato) about "alternative" decorations? Instead of (invece di) buying Christmas decorations, why not DIY - Do It Youself? 

In the following video you could (potrete) find three ideas for some cool and easy-to-make decorations... using food! 

Another thing I really love in this period are Christmas ads (pubblicità): they're really creative! 

Look at this one... can you guess (indovinare) what this ad is for? 

You see... it's never too late to learn English when there's a strong motivation behind!  😉

How not to be rude ordering food ;-)

Tonight I'm going to publish another funny video about how to order food.. in this case in a pub! You're lucky since (dato che) this time it's half in Italian and half in English!

So, remember..."I WANT" is absolutely RUDE! Federico in particular has to (deve) keep that in mind next time he takes Aurora out! Just jocking 😉
Could you please write down in the comments if you actually can see it? Thanks

Moreover, to not forget what we said about containers and quantities, look at the video and with the help of a dictionary do the exercise below (write it down on your exercise book or, if you can, print it)

Don't worry! I know it's late, so this is NOT for tomorrow... you can do it during the break 😇😇😇