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Plurals of words ending in ‘o’. Do they end with ‘s’ or ‘es’?

2015-12-30T04:46:00.002-08:00

Plurals of words ending in ‘o’. Do they end with ‘s’ or ‘es’?

Nouns that end in o can make their plural by added s or es. Are they patterns that can help us know which ending is correct?

Words ending in S

These words end is s, but do you know why?

Hint look at the letter before the o.

Radios, patios, zoos, kangaroos.

The letter before the o is a vowel, in that case we make a plural by adding an s.

The following words also end in s. What do they all have in common?

Kilos, photos, logos, typos.

They are all shortened forms of a longer word:

Kilogrammes (kilos), photographs (photos), logograms (logos), typographs (typos).

We just add s to these words:

Eskimos, Picassos, Filipinos.

What do these words have in common?

They are all proper nouns, so we just add an s to make them plural.

How about these words?

Tacos, sombreros, stilettos, solos.

Why do we add just an s?

Because they are words from another language.

Tacos and sombreros (Spanish), stilettos and solos (Italian).

We also only add an s to these words:

Kimonos, avocados, casinos, infernos, torsos.

All these words a recent or newer additions to the English language, often ‘borrowed’ from other languages.

Words ending in ES

These words all end in es:

Potatoes, tomatoes, echoes, embargoes, heroes, vetoes.

All these words are words that entered the English language and Anglicised a long time ago.

Often the spellings may vary, try to keep to the above rules to maintain consistency with your spelling!

Glossary of terms

2015-12-12T03:10:00.000-08:00

Abbreviated words	Some words used started as longer words have now been shorted or abbreviated.	O'clock (was of the clock), phone (telephone).
Adjective	A describing word	Hungry, happy, upset
Adverb	Modifies or qualifies a verb	How? What?
Antonyms	Words that have opposite meanings	Old, new. Dirty, clean
Capital Letter	Sometimes as known as 'upper case'. To be used at the start of the sentence and with Nouns.	November, Alex, Wednesday.
Commas	Complex sentences contain more than one clause. Commas help separate these clauses. They are read as a slight pause.	After breakfast, we went to school
Conjuction	Connecting words	But, and, so, yet.
Determiner	Identifies the noun	Which book? I will eat both cakes!
Dialogue	Characters in a story talk to one another, the dialogue appears in speech marks.	"The weather is aweful," complained Charlie
Exclamation	Used instead of full stops to show certain emotions like surprise, anger, joy or fear	That was great!
Full stop	Mark the end of a sentence.	Yes please.
Homophones	Words that sound the same, but are spelt differently and have different meanings.	Knight, night. Allowed and aloud.
Idioms	Local expressions or sayings, not to be taken literally	"Bob opened a can of worms!"
Injection/exclamation	A word to express emotions by the speaker	Hi!, Excuse me!, Sorry!
Lower Case	Used after a Capital letter in a sentence.	September, Monday
Metaphor	Words that describe something as if it were something else.	"She is a loose cannon!"
Noun	A word used to indicate or indentfy a person, thing, place or idea	John, Earth, chair
Onomatopoeia	Words that sound the same as they describe.	Hiss, hoot.
Plurals	Two or more of something	Toys, babies, foxes.
Possessive apostrophes	Used to show that something belongs to a person or thing.	The boy's shoes, the babies' toys.
Prefixes	Added to the beginning of words that change their meaning. Different prefixes have various meanings.	bi+plane = biplane.
Preposition	Words used before others, to help make sense	About, above, after, in
Pronoun	A word used to replace a Noun.	Instead of Paul you would use 'him' or 'his'
Punctuation	They are used to help the reader make sense of our writing.	, . ! ?
Question Mark	Used instead of full stops to show that a question is being asked.	What time is it?
Subordinate Clause	Complex sentences contain more than one clause. Commas help separate these clauses. The subordinate clause gives us more information and is embeded in the sentence.	"The cat, which was black, ran up the tree."
Suffixes	Added to the end of words that change their meaning. Different suffixes have various meanings.	Physician, explosion, session, reduction
Synonyms	Words that have similar meanings	Happy, joyful, excited, contented.
The Narrator	The person telling the story. Sometimes the narrator is the story sometimes they are not.	I wish I went to that part or Charlie really wished he went to that party.
Unstressed vowels	Although in a word these vowels are difficult to hear when pronounced or are not pronounced.	Literature, jewellery
Verb	An action word	Leran, walk, run
Vowel endings	Words that end in vowels	Bannana, spaghetti, dominio, emu.
Vowels	Important letters of the alphabet that help make words	A,E,I,O,U
Word roots	Words that come from or are related to other words.	approval or disapprove come from approve.
Words from other languages	English uses lots of words from other languages, they may have the same or a different meaning.	Pizza, bungalow, chalet, chow mein.

Polite Words

2015-12-11T06:38:00.002-08:00

Polite words make our sentences more ‘friendly’!

They are nice words to use.

Try adding them to sentences.

“Excuse me”.

Example: “Excuse me, may I use the toilet”?

“Please”

Example: “Please may I have the pencil”?

“May I…”

Example: “Please may I have a glass of water”?

“Thank you”

Example: “Thank you for the cup of tea”.

“Goodbye”

Example: “Goodbye, see you later”.

“Nice to meet you”

Example: “Hello, it is nice to meet you”.

“Sorry”

Example: “I am sorry you are not very well”.

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Learning Styles...which one are you?

2013-09-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

Whether you are learning or teaching English, it is important to know about learning styles. Here is a list of various learning styles, can you spot which style suits you the most?

1. A visual learner learns best by seeing.
2. An auditory learner learns best by hearing.
3. A kinaesthetic learner learns best when able to move around.
4. A group learner learns best by working with other students.
5. An individual learner learns best by working alone.
6. A reflective learner learns best when given time to think about choices.
7. An impulsive learner learns best when able to respond immediately.
8. An analytic learner learns best by studying rules.
9. A social learner learns best by interacting with other people.

Note that learning styles are not necessarily age related. A learner of any age could have any learning
style. Further, learning styles are not mutually exclusive. A learner may have a strong preference for one style but many learners have a combination.

Verb Tenses

2012-10-08T13:33:00.001-07:00

Verb Tense in English

Verbs in English actually have two parts: the time and the aspect, or way of looking at that time.

For example, within the present time frame, there are three aspects commonly used: simple, continuous, and perfect.

In the present time frame, simple is used to show habitual activity: “I ride my bike every day.”

Continuous shows ongoing activity or activity in the moment: “I am riding my bike right now.”

Perfect in the present time frame shows activity that began in the past but continues into the present time frame: “I have ridden my bike for about ten years.”

The past and future time frames also have simple, continuous, and perfect aspects (and in some cases, perfect continuous tenses).

Elementary Grammar – Present Simple

2012-09-18T05:34:00.003-07:00

The simple present or present simple is one of the verb forms associated with the present tense in modern English.

It is called "simple" because its basic form consists of a single word (like jog or jogs)

Present Simple is a sentence structure that is commonly used to talk about the following things:

A routine or habit:

· “I get up at 6 o’clock”

· “she walks to work”.

How often we do something:

· “I often meet friends for coffee”

· “she always walks to work”

· “I go fishing all the time”.

Permanent states:

· “I am English”.

· “My family live in Spain”

· “It rains in winter”

We often assume that Present Simple refers to ‘the present’.

Sometimes in English it is used more than that. I could say right now I am writing on my computer but if someone asked how I got to work I could say, I ride my bike.

I rode my bike this morning, which is in the past, and I will ride my bike tomorrow and the day after that, both of which are in the future. Likewise, I have always been and always will be English.

Present Simple doesn’t describe any single action or event as occurring right now, rather it describes a regular or permanent routine, habit or state that is generally true now.

Further to this, there are uses of Present Simple to talk about actions that are clearly in the past or the future:

When telling friends about something unbelievable or surprising that happened to us in the past, “So, anyway, she walks right up to our table and throws a glass of water over Peter!”

With actions or events that are scheduled to happen at a specific time in the future, “The meeting starts at 8.00am and concludes at 11am”; “Our flight leaves at nine”.

Is it a verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, preposistion, determiner, conjuntion or interjection?

2012-09-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

Useful quick reference chart for English word catagories

Use this free chart
as a quick reference
to how English words
are categorised.

English Listening Skills (ESL)

2012-09-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

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English Listening Skills

Connected Speech

When native speakers are speaking rapidly words become linked together and sometimes sounds change or are missed out so that the words do not sound as the learner would expect from the written form.

Intonation

A great deal of meaning is conveyed through intonation (a change in pitch). The listener will need to interpret the differences in pitch to understand the full meaning of the conversation.

Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice rises over time [↗];
Falling Intonation means that the pitch falls with time [↘];
Dipping Intonation falls and then rises [↘↗];
Peaking Intonation rises and then falls [↗↘].

Accents and voices

Languages have regional variations and English is no exception; Americans, Australians, Scottish, Irish, Welsh and people from the north of England can all sound very different.

As a listener you will have to adapt to quite large differences in sound, even within a relatively small area such as a single city. Listeners will also hear male and female, old and young, deep and high-pitched voices.

Listeners hear only once

In real life the listener usually only gets one chance to hear the message. On some occasions it may be possible to ask for clarification or repetition in many circumstances, this is not always possible, especially if listening to the radio or a discourse like a lecture.

The listener has a reason to listen

We often listen for a reason, for example, to find some information, or to find out what someone wants. Because of this we do not need to remember every single word we hear.

The listener understands the situation

In real life the listener almost always has some idea about what is going to be said because they can see the context, they usually know who is speaking and where they are, and they know or can predict the basic topic. A listener will also use past experience to understand present situations.

The speaker tries to help the listener

Generally the speaker wants the listener to understand. The speaker can usually see the listener and may adapt to the listener and speak more slowly or paraphrase (say the same thing in different words) if they think it necessary.

The listener responds

In English, the listener usually has to show that they are listening by making attention signals, such as nods, or saying yes, mmm, of course, etc. This helps the speaker to see how much the listener understands and lets them know to adapt what they are saying if necessary.

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TEFL - Functions and Exponents

2012-09-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

What is a function?

A function is the communicative purpose we have for speaking, the reason why we say or write something.

Functions are sometimes also called situational language because the situation or context in which they are used is very important.

What is an exponent?

An exponent is the language we use to express the function. Sometimes the exponent is a set phrase, for example, sorry, I don’t quite follow that or sometimes it is placed at the beginning of a sentence that could have a variety of different endings.

Consider these examples:

Do you mind if I…?

Please can I…?

If I were you, I would…

You should …

In order to choose the right exponent, you need to think about who is your audience and their relationship to each other.


Table showing examples of English Functions and Exponents

Learning English by Skype

2012-09-07T11:05:00.003-07:00

Many feel that the best way to learn a new language is by moving to the country that speaks that language.

This is probably true, surrounded by new words everyday, you will soon pick up phrases, even if you are not sure what they mean!!

It's not just the language you can pick up, but also you immerse yourself in the culture, the flavours and tastes of a new culture. You soon realise it is a big world out there and there is more than one way of doing something.

It really is amazing to see what makes someone laugh, what is considered offensive and what is expected of you when you meet someone for the first time.

None of this can really be taught in schools or by reading a book, it has to be experienced.

The trouble is, when it comes to learning this way you have to actually live in a country that speaks that language or at least spend a number of months there.

That’s why the internet is so great, it has shrunk our world and learning a language does not have to be a dry and tedious exercise. Learning via Skype, speaking to a native speaker is certainly a lot cheaper than an airline ticket!

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