Monday 30 May 2016

Friday 27 May 2016

What are the Origins of Country Names?

Country name origins

Why your country is named so? Using the list of countries as determined by the UN and information from the Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, discover surprising and intriguing language facts from around the globe.
Some examples:

Andorra
The name Andorra comes from a local Navarrese word, andurrial, meaning ‘shrub-covered land’. It has also been suggested that the country took its name from Arabic al-Gandura, ‘the wanton woman’, a legacy from the Moors.

Australia
Imaging the existence of a land located in the Southern hemisphere, the Greeks came up with the name Terra Australis Incognita, meaning ‘Unknown Southern Land’.

Bangladesh
Bangladesh means ‘Land of the Bengalis’, from deś, ‘land’ or ‘country’. The Bengalis take their name from Banga, the chief of the Dravidian-speaking Bang tribe.

Canada
Canada’s name is perhaps derived from the Huron-Iroquois word kanata, meaning ‘village’ or ‘settlement’.

Luxembourg
Luxembourg is originally found as Luciliburhuc, meaning ‘little castle’.

Spain

Spain may come from the Punic span or tsepan, ‘rabbit’, which were numerous in the peninsula, or from the Punic sphan,‘north’, since it was north of Carthage – or it may come from the Basque ezpaña, ‘lip’ or ‘extremity’, a reference to this south-western area of Europe.

Go on reading in OxfordWords Blog

Tuesday 24 May 2016

Monday 23 May 2016

Confusing Verbs


Tense Games: Ladders and Snakes


Try this game to review past tenses
Click on the image

Tense Games: Escape the Hangman


Practice Present Perfect with the hangman
Click on the image 

Reported Speech


Reported speech and indirect speech mean the same thing: They allow you to express what someone has said. 
This sentence, "He said he was studying English", is an example of reported speech. 
But how do you conjugate the verbs?
 Is it "he said he was studying" or "he said he studied"? 
Both are correct depending on the situation.
Learn how to say it correctly every time with Ronnie's quick and easy chart. Your friends said they watched this lesson. So what are you waiting for?

Sunday 22 May 2016

Reported Speech. Statements


We can report people's words by using direct speech or indirect speech. 

Direct Speech: Exact words of the speaker. We use quotation marks (' '). 
Reported (Indirect Speech): Exact meaning of what someone said but not the exact words. We do not use quotation marks. 

While reporting someone's sentences we start the sentences generally with some verbs like "say, tell". 
eg: Tom said that it was nice to be at home. 

SAY  -  TELL

Say is used with or without personal object. 
Eg: He said (that) he was Ted. 
      He said to me (that) he was Ted.  

Tell is always used with a personal object. 
Eg: He told me (that) he was Ted. 
      NOT      He told (that) he was Ted. 


We report someone's sentences after some time. Because of this, in reported speech we change personal pronouns, possessive adjectives/pronouns,  verb tense, and time expressions according to the meaning of the sentence. 
Eg: Sam said "am flying to Italy with my family tomorrow."
Sam said that he was flying to Italy with his family the following day. 
  
When the reported sentence start with past tense verb like "said, told" etc., the verb tenses change as follows: 





Time expressions change like this:



(From Grammar Worm)



Reported Speech: Are You Lonely Tonight?


Remember to include my code: begonals

Monday 16 May 2016

Frozen

Remember to include my teacher's code: begonals