Language Tips – Les Bons Mots | by ACA

Fun Ways to Practice Conditionals!

Les Bons Mots Team — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 15:47:59 +0000

Let’s talk about Conditionals – not so much about what they are but how to practice them at home while having fun.

If you’re not sure what conditionals are and how to use them, you should definitely watch Lauren’s videos on the zero and first Conditionals as well as on the second and third Conditionals .

A quick recap of the rules:

The Zero Conditional: if + present simple, … present simple => (real/likely)

The First Conditional: if + present simple, … will + infinitive => (real/ likely)

The Second Conditional: if + past simple*, … would + infinitive => (imaginary/ unlikely)

The Third Conditional: if + past perfect, … would + have + past participle => (impossible/ past)

* Don’t forget that the verb to be always conjugates to “were” (and not “was”) in the second conditional (“If I were you”, and not, “~~If I was you~~”). However, keep in mind that some English speakers break this rule and you may hear both versions in conversation.

1. Listen for conditionals in movies, TV shows or in songs! Let’s give it a try: which type of conditional sentences are used in the following 3 songs? (Find the answers at the end of the article.)

· Nickelback – If today was your last day.

· Simply Red – If you don’t know me by now.

· Adele – If it hadn’t been for love.

2. Or how about practising conditionals as a party game at your next 5 à 7? You could play around of “What If – questions” like:

· What if computers took over the world?

· What if you could live your life without ever needing to sleep? What would you do with the extra hours in each day?

· If you were invited to high tea with the Queen of England, what would you say to her?

3. Another great party game is “chain story”. All you need is paper and a pen. Then you need to decide which conditional you want to practise. The first person starts by writing a full conditional sentence. The next person uses the second clause of the first person’s sentence as their first clause and so on. For example:

· If I won the lottery, I would go on a five star cruise.

· If I went on a five star cruise, I would swim in the pool every day.

· If I swam in the pool every day, I would become really fit.

· If I were really fit, I wouldn’t get out of breath after climbing three stairs anymore.

4. Or maybe you’re on your own and feeling dreamy? How about browsing job listings or looking at pictures of faraway locations. You could imagine what it would be like if you got the job as head of sales at Simon’s. Or what the water would feel like if you snorkelled in the Indian Ocean.

5. Last but not least: Why don’t you have a conversation with a colleague in English and talk about difficult situations at work. Ask for advice, or give advice!

· If I were you, I would talk to our boss and explain the situation.

What would you do if you were me?

· I would have worked overtime if I had known about the deadline.

And if you need a cheat sheet for the rules, just download it as a PDF! You can easily print it and use it for your conditionals practice. Do you have any other ideas on how to practise conditionals in a fun way? We love to hear from you on social media, or email us at lesbonsmots@lesateliers.ca!

Answers for idea 1: Nickelback – Second Conditional, Simply Red – First Conditional , Adele – Third Conditional

Rules Conditionals Download

Prepositions: Rules of Thumb

Les Bons Mots Team — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 15:41:30 +0000

In her video, Prepositions: Rules of Thumb, Lauren has suggested some general principles for remembering the ways that English Prepositions behave. Please watch her suggestions and use them in connection with the suggestions here.

Prepositions rarely translate smoothly across languages in the same way that many nouns or verbs do. They exist in the murky, twilight space between the sunlit world of words with a definite definition and the somewhat darker, more mysterious subterranean realm of idiom. To make things even more challenging and frustrating, not all English dialects and regions use the same prepositions in the same situations. As an American, if I wanted to know the location of my child, I might ask my spouse “Where’s Sam at?” As a Newfoundland-Canadian, my partner often asks the same kind of question this way: “Where’s Sam to?” It’s important to understand that you’ll hear these variations if you are working or socializing with a mix of English-speakers, as they may well come from a range of regions and linguistic backgrounds. And be gentle with yourself if you use a preposition in the ‘wrong’ way: there really isn’t necessarily a ‘right’ way, just local and regional conventions.

As a result, I find it useful to simply memorize certain phrases that you might need, even as I move between different English dialects. If you come across a sentence that includes a preposition, try to understand the sense of the preposition as Lauren suggests. But also try to get a sensory feel for the sentence or clause as a whole by learning certain key phrases by heart. In other words, when it comes to prepositions, try to avoid translating individual words directly back into your native language.

To that end, I’ve prepared 10 common preposition uses that you can try to memorize. Memorizing them should give you not just an intellectual feel for what the prepositions mean; it should allow you to begin the long process of physically imprinting their meaning on your tongue and brain.

Common Preposition Sentences. I’ve put the prepositions in bold to highlight their use, but keep in mind that in most of these situations English speakers would not put any extra stress on these syllables when speaking. Rather the opposite: prepositions often are extremely unstressed to highlight the nouns and verbs that they are connecting. Prepositions are facilitators and backstage staff: they exist to help linguistic stars shine. Keep in mind that certain verbs are often followed by certain prepositions. In the side note, I try to highlight these tendencies.

Lauren’s rules of thumb will help you understand why you’re using these prepositions. But, as you memorize certain sentences, try to go beyond why: instead pay attention to how the sentence feels on your mouth and sounds in your ear.

I work at the grocery store. (If you work at a location, you often work at that location).
I have been working for Radio Canada for ten years. (If you are discussing your employer rather than a location, you work for someone).
Yes, I am going to the Zoom party on Saturday night. (Go almost always demands a to).
No, I have not heard from her since last Tuesday. (You hear from people).
I will be driving to Quebec Tuesday night. (driving, flying, sailing often—like ‘go’—requires a to).
My brother never has any free time. It’s like he’s married to his work. (You are married to someone, or when used as an expression, something).
I’m on it. (Meaning: I will attend to this matter immediately. This phrase likely comes from the idea that our attention is often on things.)
Dr. Thompson will be attending to you soon. (Almost as often, our attention is given to things).
You can always depend on Francine to do a good job. (We depend on someone or something)
I will be thinking about the matter of your raise over the weekend. (When our attention is given to something for a duration of time, we often say ‘I’m thinking about it.’ When specifying the duration, we might say ‘over’ for shorter periods, but ‘during’ or ‘for’ for longer periods like months or years.

Parting Reminder: Memorize the preposition’s meaning, but memorize the physical feel of the sentence or phrase as well. As you watch television in English and read in English, occasionally focus your attention on how the prepositions are being used. The goal is to always become more and more familiar with the sound of the preposition in context.

by Nathan R. Elliott

Much and Many: A companion piece

Les Bons Mots Team — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 16:03:00 +0000

Much and many are easy to confuse, especially for language learners coming from European languages like French, German, Spanish, and Italian. The difference can cause even the most advanced learner to make a mistake. While the mistake usually doesn’t cause a problem for comprehension on the part of the English listener, it can be a distraction within a conversation.

My colleague Lauren, in this helpful video, has gone through the rules that distinguish the difference between much and many. You should, if at all possible, memorize these rules, and remind yourself of them when you encounter much or many in spoken English.

Of course, it’s difficult to remember the rules in the heat of battle. As an English speaker, I have never once had to remind myself to use much with non-countable nouns and to use many with countable nouns. However, when I try to remember a rule when speaking French, I promptly get flustered and end up ordering something at the pizzeria that I really didn’t want or switching to English, which is even more embarrassing.

The language learner’s goal is to get to a point where you know the rule, but you don’t have to remember it when you’re mid-conversation. So, as an experiment, try reviewing the following ten phrases, even half-memorizing them; focus especially on the combination of modifier and the noun. Why? Times always needs many, but time always needs much. Faith and other abstract concepts like emotions always need much. Bottles, apples, and many other items from the grocery store need many as long as you’re talking about quantity, however small things like rice and sugar, or liquids like milk and coffee are uncountable and use much.

Your goal: to get your ear used to common much/many combinations so that even though you understand the rule, you don’t have to rely on it when you’re ordering to-go pizzas. Try to find a context where you can use these phrases with your class or an English-speaking friend. It’s worth noting that both ‘much’ and ‘many’ are often used in questions.

Many (for countable nouns)

1. I’m going to the SAQ. How many bottles of wine should I buy?

2. How many times have we run out of class time before we could discuss the difference between ‘much’ and ‘many’?

3. There were too many people at the grocery store, so I left.

4. Many Canadian retailers are filing for bankruptcy due to a sharp decline in sales.

5. For many users, the software was difficult and confusing.

Much (for non-countable nouns)

1. I’m going to the SAQ. How much wine should I buy? (Notice here that wine is uncountable, but as we see above, bottles are countable. )

2. I don’t have much faith in Ridley Scott. Alien was good, but it’s been all downhill from there.

3. You should buy your popcorn now. There isn’t much time until the movie starts.

4. I haven’t made much progress on my book since the last time we talked about it.

5. The software was much too difficult to use.

6. How much time will it take us to finish the report?

Remember: try, try again. Much and many are important to learn and master, but it will take time, and you will make mistakes, and this mistake is not an especially difficult one for English-speakers to understand. When you receive a correction from a tutor, instructor, or English-speaking friend, remind yourself of the rule, but also take the time to repeat the correction to yourself a few times. Try to let the rhythm of too many people, too much time, how many times filter through your head and train your ear.

With practice, everyone improves.

by Nathan R. Elliott

Rough and Ready Guide to Simple Past and Present Perfect

Les Bons Mots Team — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 17:39:15 +0000

This post is designed to give you some easy to remember tools when it comes to using the Present Perfect Tense and the Simple Past, which are easily confused by many English language learners. We’ll break this down into

The Problem,
The Solution for the Simple Past,
The Solution for the Present Perfect, and
Some Basic Contexts for the Present Perfect.

Recognize the Problem: For English language learners whose dominant language is French, learning to master the Present Perfect and distinguish it from the Simple Past tense presents a particular difficulty due to the way the le passé composé works in French. That verb tense presents a trap for French speakers who are learning English! In French, le passé composé is mostly used for completed actions in the past. In English, we often use the Simple Past tense to talk about completed actions in the past. That’s simple enough, but le passé composé also uses the auxiliary verb ‘avoir,’ which is often translated as ‘to have.’ English uses the auxiliary verb ‘to have’ in a verb tense as well but, but the verb tense is the Present Perfect. And the Present Perfect is not used to describe actions completed in the past, it is used to describe things in the past that are still somehow relevant to the present moment.

And there’s the problem!

The French speaker finds it very tempting to say “I have eaten” when they want to say “J’ai mangé.”
To make it even more confusing, “I have eaten” is certainly grammatically correct and may not even sound wrong in the context of many English conversations.
Well, it won’t sound wrong until it really sounds wrong; it sounds great until it turns into a goofy mistake in certain select contexts.

And that’s confusing.

The solution is not complicated in theory but can be difficult to execute.

If you want to say the English equivalent of “J’ai mangé” you need to say “I ate.” Even Google Translate translates this sentence as “I have eaten,” but the more accurate translation in many contexts is going to be “I ate.”

Exercise: A useful practice might be to write several passé composé sentences in French using time words like hier, à 7 heures, or en 2009. Then translate them without using the ‘to have’ auxiliary verb.
Try, in other words, to practice using the simple past tense to translate finished past actions. By doing this exercise you’ll also get some practice with irregular verbs.

All simple enough when it comes to using the Simple Past, you say, but when do I use the Present Perfect? Try focusing on these two rough guidelines.

If you’re unsure if you should be using the Present Perfect or the Simple Past, and you’re in the middle of a conversation: go with the simple past. It’s your best bet.
Remember that the Present Perfect is for situations where something happened in the past, but it’s still relevant now.

“J’ai mangé” is “I ate.” But people say “I have eaten” all the time, often in a context where they are being offered food when they don’t need or want it. If someone offers you a muffin at an early morning meeting you don’t want because you ate a big breakfast an hour ago, you say “I have eaten already.”
This is the equivalent of saying “J’ai déjà mangé.’ You ate in the past but that action is relevant to the moment right now: the fact that you really don’t need that Costco muffin the size of your head.

4. Basic Contexts for the Present Perfect.

As I said in three, it’s likely strategic to retreat to the Simple Past when you’re just not sure; I often find that many written pieces by Anglophones are strengthened by using the Simple Past rather than the Present Perfect.

However, there are contexts where it’s useful to have the Present Perfect. Imagining these scenarios when you practice the verb tense can help you remember when it’s appropriate to reintroduce the auxiliary verb ‘to have’ and the Present Perfect as a result.

1. Job Interviews. For many English learners of Business English, this is the main context for the Present Perfect. You want to know a job candidate’s experience and how it relates to now. You want to tell an employer the software you’ve learned in the past and how that relates to the job you’re applying to right now. You want to explain why you poured coffee over your boss’s head ten years ago, and why that will not happen now if your new employer offers you a job.

Job interviews are all about the past and the now at the same time, so they tend to use the present perfect a lot.
Example: “I have never worked in a call centre, but I have worked in customer service before.” or “Yes, I’ve used that software extensively.”

1. First Dates and other Introductions. A first date is a kind of job interview, some have said. You need to tell your prospective partner that you have three kids that you share custody with your ex. You need to tell your partner that you tried sushi, but it always made you break out in an allergic reaction.

Example: “I have tried calamari more than once, but I’m afraid if our relationship is based on eating squid, we’re probably going nowhere as a couple.”

A conference happy hour, or a 5 à 7, is also a place where you’re likely to be giving people information about your past that is still relevant to right now:
Example: “I have lived in Montréal for two years.”

Note: “I lived in Montréal for two years” is in the simple past and thus suggests that you no longer live there, that that period of your life is complete, that you’ve moved on to Paris or Prague or Seattle. “I have lived in Montéal for two years,” in the Present Perfect, suggests you still live in Montréal and don’t have any immediate plans to move.

1. News: If you’re making an announcement in English, especially an announcement that relays information that happened recently, then you might want to use the Present Perfect. News journalists use the Present Perfect all the time, especially when announcing news that is ‘breaking,’ (still pretty new to common knowledge).
  
  Example: “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, management has recently decided that all water fountains in the building will be closed.”

Note: Note how certain time words, recently in this example, often imply that the Present
Perfect Tense. Such time words also include: ‘already,’ ‘before,’ and ‘just.’
Final exercise: Watch the news in English, then watch a sitcom in English. Try to spot places where announcers and characters are using the simple past or the present perfect. Keep in mind that these rules are not strict; idiom dictates a lot about when and how these two verb tenses are employed.
As you get more advanced, you might try ‘spotting’ the verb tense in different genres.

Sitcoms will often use a combination of Simple Past, Simple Present, and Simple Future.
News shows will often use a combination of Present Perfect and Simple Past.
Mysteries, Horror, and some Science Fiction are the most likely to use Past Perfect as well as the
Simple Past and Present Perfect tenses.

by Nathan R. Elliott