Adjective clauses

Hi,

at this class, we've studied adjective clauses. It's a clause that qualifies a noun. It always needs a relative pronoun who or that. For instance,

• "The clothes that I used to wear were very expensive."
• "The man who I was talking to is my father."

It's necessary to know if the qualified noun is a subject or an object of the adjective clause. That's because when it is an object it's normal to be omitted. And, if the noun is a thing, you can't use who. Who is a relative subjective only for people.

If you read the grammar booster, you're going to see a tip to identify when it's a subject or an object. You have to split the main and adjective clauses. Ex.:

1) The nurse is a beautiful woman.
    The nurse gave me a shot.
    The nurse who gave me a shot is a beautiful woman.

2) I bought the food.
    The food was aweful.
    The food that I bought was awful.

See? When you split the clauses it's easier to know if it's a subject or an object.

In the first one, if you omit the relative pronoun the sentence changes and gets awkward.

"The nurse gave me a shot is a beautiful woman."

In the last one, that doesn't happen.

"The food I bought was awful."

Well, that's it!

See you!
   

How do we say it?

Hello, guys! How are you?

I want to share with you something I found really interesting. You know that we have some words in Portuguese which have same pronunciation even though they are written in a different way, right? Well, they exist in English too. What differentiates them in the speaking is the context. Here it comes a list.

• You have to speak aloud. /  You can't go into the office. You're not allowed.
• I ate eight apples.
• Write in the board "I am bored!".
• When the serial-killer have breakfast, does he eat cereal?
• I can't see my eye at the mirror.
• I flew with this flu. What could I do?
• Was the e-mail sent by a male or a female person?
• When you meet him, did you eat meat?
• You didn't write correctly, right?

Well, these are just some examples. If you have more, please, leave a message.  :)

First kiss

Did you see that?

The idea is amazing but it seems a little weird, don't you think? I mean, I think they have never met before, but they weren't totally uncomfortable.

I've read in a comment: 'It's usual to see that in the night (yes, I used to go out many years ago and I saw couples doing it a hundred times!) but it doesn't mean that it wasn't a good video.'

Did you note that there were two guys that didn't kissed each other like the rest? Their kiss were shy and after they hold each other. It was like they had an affair and had just broken down. Like, 'it was good, but I have to live my life and you have to live yours and goodbye!'

I understood almost everything they say, but there are a couple (she looks a little older than the guy) that I could not understand. Could you? If you did, please, tell me.

Well, nobody can deny that the song is awesome! It's called 'We might be dead by tomorrow'. Its name attracts my attention for two reasons: a) the use of 'might'. It was used just like a possibility, a speculation. And, b) the 'by tomorrow'. If I have to translate its title from Portuguese to English, something like 'Podemos estar mortos amanhã.' I probably would do it 'We might be dead tomorrow' not 'by tomorrow'. Anyway, this is the kind of stuff we can't learn without practice, right?

See you!  :)

Played and Tried

Do you remember why we write 'I played' and 'I tried'?

Well, I didn't. So I've searched and got the explanation:

 When the word ends in a consonant plus 'y', you need to change 'y' in 'i' before add 'ed' in the past form. The same to create superlatives and comparatives: easy/easier,easiest. Or plurals: city/cities, etc.

When the word ends in a vowel plus 'y', there is no change!

3rd class

Hello,

at this class we learned about perfect modals.

1. When you regret or want to judge someone, you can use:
   should have + past participle;
   'I should have arrived sooner.'
   'You shouldn't have said that.'
   
   In both cases, it sounds pretty much as their translations to Portuguese.
   'Eu deveria ter chegado antes.'
   'Você não deveria ter dito isto.'
   
   
2. When you want to express a possibility or to speculate, you can use:
   may have, might have + p.p
   'The car might have broken down.'
   If, for instance, you're waiting for some friend and he didn't arrive yet, and never answer his cellphone, like me :)
   You are speculating because there is no evidence that his car has broken down, but you think that is a possible reason.
   
   
3. When you are sure about a scenario that didn't happen but it could have happened, you can use:
   would have + p.p.
   'I would have been a great chef.'
   But if you have some doubt about it, you use:
   could have + p.p.
   'I could have been a great chef.'
   
   It is pretty close but there is a little difference. The first one means you know you would be a great chef. On the other hand, the last one means you have no guarantee.
   
   
4. At last, there is the 'must have'. The book says it is used when you want to do a 'draw conclusion'. It can be confused to know when to use 'must have' or 'might have'. Actually, I don't understand it very well, but I've searched and found this definition.
   
   "Drawing conclusions refers to making an inference based of several bit of information. Usually, all the information available is considered before one draws a conclusion."
   
   So, after to think about the examples given by the book, I believe that if you have no information, you use the 'might have'. Otherwise, if there is any tip use 'must have'.
   To be clear, using the example above:
   
   'The car might have broken down'.
   My friend didn't tell me his car had problems. But, since, he didn't arrived, I speculate it.
   But if I say:
   'My friend said yesterday that his car wasn't good. The car must have broken down.'
   

Well, that's what I understood. If I'm wrong, please, let me know. :)

2nd class

Hi,

at this class, we saw the future in the past. How to talk about an expectation you had? It's close to our 'futuro do pretérito' I think, like:

Eu faria, Eu iria fazer

The book says it is possible to say 'They said they were going to arrive before noon.' instead of 'They said they would arrive before noon.'

But, you can't say: 'She would be a nurse'. It's better to say: 'She was going to be a nurse'.

As the future in the past is 'often used for plans that changed or weren't achieved' there are a list of excuses you can use to express why you couldn't achieve your goals.

You can say:

1. I wanted to be a astronaut but my taste/s changed;
2. I was going to be a musician but it's hard to make a living as a musician;
3. I thought I would be an archtect but I didn't pass the exam;
4. I wanted to become a politician but my wife talked me out of it;
5. I was going to  live abroad but I just changed my mind.

So there are many ways to describe why you decided to do something else. :D

Hello, everyone!

Hello, guys! I'm back to write about our classes. I know I've written a lot of wrong things here last semester :) but it was very good to me because I could practice what I learned and that is the most important to me. I so recommend you try to do something like this.

Well, our dear new teacher has already spoken about many things so far and I'm a little late but, you know, I'm a procrastinator. Lol! I'm going to try to remember what she said until now.

First of all, I missed the initial class. I didn't attended it but I think she started from chapter 6, right? If I'm right, probably she spoke about "life plans" that it's the main issue of the chapter.

There are some expressions or idioms like 'pick someone's brain', 'make one's mind', etc. I tried to do the exercises (Ex. C, p. 63 ) by my own and I think that the answer is: 1d, 2c, 3b, 4f, 5a and 6e. If I did it wrong, please, tell me.

So,  that's it! See you.