Natale - Vocabolario

Impara con questa lezione le espressioni legate alle festività natalizie e al Capodanno.

Christmas Eve is the 24th of December. “Eve” is old English for “Evening,” so it means the night before Christmas (when young children believe Father Christmas comes down their chimney with presents).

Christmas Day is the 25th of December, and a traditional celebration for Christians, who believe that Jesus Christ was born on this date.

Boxing Day is the 26th of December and a public holiday. The boxes after which this day are named are charity or “alms boxes”, which were opened on the day after Christmas and the money inside was given to the poor. Nowadays Christmas boxes are given to tradesmen, who come to your home such as milkmen and dustmen.

New Year’s Eve is the 31st of December.

New Year’s Day is the 1st of January.

Advent Calendar – Advent is the 4 weeks before Christmas. An advent calendar is a piece of cardboard, with 24 (or 25) windows to open, when these cardboard windows are opened, there is a Christmas picture and often a sweet inside them. Children use them to count the days until Christmas day.

Mistletoe has a special place in British Christmas celebrations. You hang up a branch in the house. Although many people just demand a celebratory kiss under the mistletoe, you are meant to pick one berry for each kiss.

Christmas Crackers – These are a cardboard tube covered in coloured paper, and containing a small present, a joke and a paper hat. Crackers are pulled apart by two people (each holding one end) at Christmas parties. They make a loud noise as they break open.

Natale - Grammatica - Trascrizione

Hello everybody! Welcome to the EnglishBlog. In this podcast, you’ll be learning the past simple tense and some useful Christmas vocabulary.
Before starting, let me first explain that the lesson is divided into two parts:
PART ONE: you’ll be learning how to form the past simple tense
PART TWO: you’ll be listening to people reminiscing about past festive times.
So Let’s start!

Natale - Grammatica - Podcast

Hello everybody! Welcome to the EnglishBlog. In this podcast, you’ll be learning the past simple tense and some useful Christmas vocabulary.
Before starting, let me first explain that the lesson is divided into two parts:
PART ONE: you’ll be learning how to form the past simple tense
PART TWO: you’ll be listening to people reminiscing about past festive times.
So Let’s start!

Scarica il file mp3 per ascoltare offline la lezione: Natale - Grammatica

Natale - Grammatica

In questa lezione capirai quali sono i diversi usi del past simple.

The Past Simple:

We use the “Past Simple” to talk about past actions, when:

1. It is a past action and we say when it happened.
   e.g. I went to London 2 days ago.
2. It is a past action and it was done in finished time.
   e.g. I visited my uncle last week. ( Last week OR a finished time period.)
3. It is a past fact.
   e.g. Italy won the world cup in 2006.
4. It is a historical fact e.g. Messina had a big earthquake in 1908.

How is the Past Simple formed?

FORM:

• Affirmative: Regular verbs: subject + verb +ed e.g. walk => walked, cook => cooked etc.

  If a verb ends in “y” then the past simple form is: subject+verb+ied e.g. hurry => hurried, study => studied

  However there are a lot of irregular verbs, which if you want to speak English properly, you must learn:
  e.g. go => went, do => did, eat => ate, etc.

• Negative: All verbs: subject + didn’t + verb e.g. I didn’t go to work yesterday.
• Interrogative: All verbs: did+ subject + verb+ object? e.g. Did you have a nice day?
  Where did you go last night?
  What did you do yesterday?

Cucina - Lettura

Nella lezione di oggi troverai la ricetta di un tradizionale piatto inglese.

COTTAGE PIE (sformato)

Serving for 4 (dosi per 4 persone)
Ingredients
1 lb (450g) mince (carne tritata)
8oz (225g) carrots, peeled and diced (tagliate a dadini)
1 onion finely chopped (affettate)
1lb(450g) old potatoes Knob (noce) of margarine
3-4 tablespoons of milk
Freshly ground (macinato) black pepper

Method

• Pre-heat oven (forno) to 200°C (400°F/ Gas mark 6).
• Peel the potatoes and place them in a saucepan of water to boil.
• Dry fry (fai rosolare) the mince in your frying pan until brown.
• Add the onion and carrot and cook with the mince for 5 minutes.
• Drain (scola) the potatoes in the colander and return to the pan.
• Add the margarine and milk to the potatoes and mash (schiacciale) until creamy.
• Put the mince mixture into a baking dish (pirofila) and spoon over (ricopri con cucchiaiate di) the mashed potato (purè).
• Place in the oven for about 45 minutes.

The British and Americans use different measurement scales (scale di misurazione) – pounds (libbre), ounces, cups, etc. You can download a conversion table from any cookery website.

Adapted from www.bbc.co.uk

Cucina - Grammatica - Trascrizione

Hello everybody! Welcome to the EnglishBlog. In this podcast, you’ll be learning some essential English on countable and uncountable nouns.
Before starting, let me first explain that the lesson is divided into two parts:
PART ONE: you’ll be learning the difference between singular and plural nouns.
PART TWO: you’ll be listening to 2 people making an apple pie.
So let’s start!

Cucina - Grammatica - Podcast

Hello everybody! Welcome to the EnglishBlog. In this podcast, you’ll be learning some essential English on countable and uncountable nouns.
Before starting, let me first explain that the lesson is divided into two parts:
PART ONE: you’ll be learning the difference between singular and plural nouns.
PART TWO: you’ll be listening to 2 people making an apple pie.
So let’s start!

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Scarica gratuitamente iTunes e iscriviti al podcast di EnglishBlog.it.

Cucina - Grammatica

La lezione di oggi ti spiegherà la differenza tra countable e uncountable nouns

Osserva queste due liste. Qual è la differenza tra loro?

L’elenco A contiene cose che non si possono contare (UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS), come ad esempio il latte, la farina o il burro.

L’elenco B contiene cose che possiamo contare (COUNTABLE NOUNS), come le mele, le uova o le patate.

I sostantivi non numerabili non hanno la forma plurale. Per quantificarli, dobbiamo utilizzare delle unità di misura o contenitori:
Two cups of tea
A saucepan of water
Four tablespoons of milk
A knob of margarine

Quando la quantità non è definita, usiamo il partitivo SOME, sia per i sostantivi numerabili al plurale che per quelli non numerabili:
I need to buy some eggs and some milk to make pancakes.

Una curiosità:
Nella lingua parlata, è possibile dire “How many sugars do you want in your tea?”. “Sugars” è un modo informale per dire “teaspoons of sugar” (cucchiaini di zucchero).

Halloween - Lessico - Trascrizione

Hello everybody! Welcome to the EnglishBlog. In this podcast, you’ll be learning some interesting English on the tradition of carved pumpkins at Halloween.
Before starting, let me first explain that the lesson is divided into two parts:
PART ONE: you’ll be listening to some useful English vocabulary, on the tradition of “Halloween lanterns.” You’ll then hear a short explanation of these words, followed by an example of how they are used.
PART TWO: you’ll be listening to information on the legend of “Jack o’ Lantern”.
So let’s start!

Halloween - Lessico - Podcast

Hello everybody! Welcome to the EnglishBlog. In this podcast, you’ll be learning some interesting English on the tradition of carved pumpkins at Halloween.
Before starting, let me first explain that the lesson is divided into two parts:
PART ONE: you’ll be listening to some useful English vocabulary, on the tradition of “Halloween lanterns.” You’ll then hear a short explanation of these words, followed by an example of how they are used.
PART TWO: you’ll be listening to information on the legend of “Jack o’ Lantern”.
So let’s start!

Scarica il file mp3 per ascoltare offline la lezione: Halloween - Lessico

Halloween - Lessico

Leggendo la lezione di oggi scoprirai come è nata l’usanza di intagliare le zucche ad Halloween.

Jack o' Lantern The practice of carving pumpkins at Halloween originated from the Irish myth of 'stingy Jack' (Jack lo spilorcio). The legend says that Jack convinced the Devil to turn into a coin (tramutarsi in una moneta) so that he could buy drinks at a pub. The Devil agreed to do so, but then Jack decided to keep (tenere) the coin and put it in his pocket, next to a silver cross (croce d’argento), so that the Devil could not get back to his original form.
At last Jack set the Devil free (liberò il diavolo), but when he died neither God nor the Devil would have his soul (anima).
Therefore Jack was condemned to wander in the dark (vagare nell’oscurità), with only a candle inside a carved-out turnip (rapa intagliata) to light his way. The Irish called him 'Jack o’ Lantern’ (or 'Jack of the Lantern').

For more information on Halloween traditions, see www.historychannel.com.

Halloween - Grammatica - Trascrizione

Hello everybody! Welcome to the EnglishBlog. In this podcast, you’ll be learning some interesting survival English on how to prepare for a Halloween party.
Before starting, let me first explain that the lesson is divided into two parts:
PART ONE: you’ll be learning the different uses of the word “would.”
PART TWO: you’ll be listening to some useful sentences on how to throw a Halloween party!
So let’s start!