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Linguagum – Learn English faster!

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Learn English for free with podcasts.
Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

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ESL Podcast – Previous Episodes

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My house is less than two hours from several theme parks. Where I live is no more than two hours from several theme parks. The most famous of these is Disneyland. Disneyland is the best known of these. I have to admit I’ve never gone there. I hate to say it, but I’ve never been there. It strikes me as being one big ad for the Disney corporation. To my mind, it is a massive ad for the Disney organization. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Disney films. Don’t misunderstand me, Iâve got no problem with Disney films. But I find the intensity of the marketing by Disney to be offensive. But I am put off by the intensity of Disney’s marketing. Especially because it is aimed at children. Particularly because children are the target audience. Also, I have heard that the lines for rides are endless. Also, people say that the wait times for rides are not to be believed. The one theme park I have been to is Legoland. Legoland is the one theme park I have been to. The park features exquisite constructions made with Lego blocks. A main feature of the park is beautiful Lego block constructions. Sometimes they have a cityscape like that of New York or Las Vegas. Sometimes they have the model of a city like New York or Las Vegas. My visit there was seven years ago. My visit there was seven years back. Now rides and entertainment are the big attraction. These days it’s rides and entertainment that are the big draw. Tickets for theme parks are not inexpensive. Theme park tickets don’t come cheap. You can expect to pay $40 to $60 per person for an all-day admission. An all-day admission goes for upwards of $40 to $60. Plus the cost of food, drinks, and souvenirs. Add to that the outlay for food, drinks, and souvenirs. Many of the parks have annual tickets. A good number of the parks offer yearly tickets. I think theme parks will suffer if the economy goes bad. My guess is the parks will not do well in a down economy. People will look for cheaper family entertainment. People will seek out less expensive family entertainment. Less

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A listener to these podcasts who lives in Brazil has sent me an e-mail to say, please can I make a podcast about when we say “if” and when we say “whether”. I have thought very hard about this, because it is not easy to explain. The trouble is that you do not think about grammar rules for your own language. You just know what word is correct and what word is wrong. At one time, perhaps 50 years ago, there were clear rules about when we should use “if” and when we should use “whether”. I shall explain these rules first, because if you stick to these rules, your English will be correct. But I will also tell you that, unfortunately, we English often do not obey the rules. Here are some sentences where we use the word “if”. If the sun shines tomorrow, we will go for a picnic. If the train is late, I will miss the meeting. If I have time, I will drink some coffee and read the newspaper. If I had remembered my umbrella, I would not have got so wet. Now here are some sentences with “whether”. Whether the sun shines tomorrow or not, we will have a picnic. Whether or not the train is late, I will still miss the meeting. I go for a walk every day, whether it is summer or winter. Now do you see the difference between “if” and “whether”. “If” introduces a single condition. It talks about only one possible thing that might happen – if the sun shines tomorrow, if the train is late and so on. A sentence with “whether” talks about two or more different things that might happen – maybe the sun will shine tomorrow, maybe it will not, but we will go for a picnic whether or not the sun is shining. Very often “whether” sentences contain the words “or not”; or they say “or not” indirectly, like the last example I gave you. We also use the word “whether” to begin a noun clause that describes a question or a problem or an issue. Let’s look at some examples, so that you can see what I mean. John asked me whether I could go to a party on Saturday. (“Whether” tells us that there is a question or problem – can you come to the party?) I told him that it depended on whether I finished my homework in time. (“Whether” tells us that there is a question or problem – will I finish my homework in time?) I do not know whether the train goes at 3pm or at 3.15pm. (“Whether” tells us that there is a question or problem – what time does the train go?) I need to find out whether my mother is coming at the weekend.(“Whether” tells us that there is a question or problem – is my mother coming at the weekend?) Joanne asked her boss whether she could go home early. (“Whether” tells us that there is a question or problem – can I go home early?) So – here is our simple rule. “If” introduces a single condition. “Whether” introduces alternatives, and is often followed by “or not”. And “whether” starts noun clauses that tell us that there is a question or a problem. The trouble is, however, that in modern English, particularly spoken English, people often say “if” when they should say “whether”. In particular, people often start noun clauses about questions or problems with “if” instead of “whether”. It is very common to hear people say for example “He asked me if I could go to his party on Saturday”. In some languages, like French, there is a central institute or academy which decides what the proper rules for the language are. We do not have anything like this for English. Good English is simply the English that educated and intelligent English people speak. So if people say “if” instead of “whether”, then “if” is correct! I hope this is not too confusing. I have made a little quiz so that you can practice “if” and “whether” – you will find a link on the website. Finally, here is a little poem about “whether”. You will have to listen carefully, because there are two words in English that we pronounce “whether”. There is the word “whether” which we have been talking about in today’s podcast, and there is the “weather” – rain, wind, sunshine and so on. Whether the weather is fine Or whether the weather is not Whether the weather is cold Or whether the weather is hot We’ll weather the weather Whatever the weather Whether we like it or not. Picture of stormy weather by Robert Voors/flickr Quiz – which is right, “if” or “whether”? :: File Download (6:33 min / 3 MB) Less

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Today’s sentence Hi! This is the last in the series on different ways of saying, “I don’t know!” Do you think I have a crystal ball or something? Notes This is even ruder than yesterday’s sentence, “how should I know?” It’s very sarcastic, too. Do you know what a fortune teller is? It’s someone who can see the future – perhaps by “reading” tea leaves or palms or by looking into a ball made of glass (a crystal ball.) So this is a very specific form of “I don’t know.” You might use it, for example, if someone asks you, “Who do you think is going to win the World Cup this year?” You think this is a stupid question (because, obviously, how could you possibly know?) and you are rude! It means “How could I possibly know that? I am not able to see the future / I know nothing about the future.” Well, be careful how you use this! It’s OK to say it if you say it to a friend and you laugh pleasantly while you say it! And that’s it. I hope you found this series useful. We’ll start a new theme tomorrow but, in the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact me on Let’s Chew! See you tomorrow! Search Linguagum for more English tips, check out our very useful links and our shop! And please, tell us what you think of us! Text and audio © linguagum.com 2006-2008 Less

Learn English for free with podcasts.
Linguagum – Learn English faster!

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Learn English for free with podcasts.
Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

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Learn English for free with podcasts.
ESL Podcast – Previous Episodes

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This lesson is a kind of experiment. You should do this lesson before and/or after watching the May 1 video podcast of a program called The Daily English Lesson. The video podcast is the creation of Sarah. Sarah is from New Zealand. She lives and works in Japan, where she teaches English. Here is the link to the May 1 edition of The Daily English Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfzPshMpF1Y Sarah achieved her dream. Sarah reached one of her highest goals. She was voted the number one video podcast. Her video podcast was voted number one. She voted for herself. She cast a vote for herself. Thank you very much. That’s very cool. I can’t thank you enough. That’s really nice. Sarah printed out the list. Sarah made a printout of the list. Some people left some very nice comments. Some people wrote very nice comments. A woman emailed to ask if she could get broadband service. A woman emailed to see about getting broadband service. The word gay has several uses. The word gay has a number of different meanings. The word gay can mean a homosexual person. The word gay can be used to mean a homosexual person. A woman named Gay received an automated reply email. A woman named Gay got back an automated reply email. The company apologized. [missing in audio] The company made an apology. You heard that Gay received an automated reply email. The prefix AUTO- in the word automated means “by oneself” or “by itself” or “self acting.”An automated email reply program studies the words in the email you write. It matches your words against a list of words and uses those matches to decide what message you should receive back. In the case Sarah describes, the filter saw the word GAY and decided that it was an inappropriate word for a business email, because it can mean homosexual. Now here are some sentences to help practice words that have the prefix AUTO ATM stands for Automated Teller Machine. I took out 50 dollars from an ATM. I got 50 bucks at an automated teller machine. Can you tell me where the nearest ATM is? Can you point me to the nearest ATM? Some restaurants automatically add a tip to the bill. If you are born in the USA you are automatically a citizen. If someone writes the story of your life, it is called a biography. If you write your own life story it is called an autobiography. I wonder if anyone would read my autobiography? Have your read any good biographies lately? I read the autobiography of Charles Darwin. Reading biographies is a good way to study history. Less

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ESL Aloud

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