In Britain not pulling a cracker means that something is missing! Both children and adults love them and they add more fun and laughter to Christmas dinner and parties. But where did this tradition come from? I came across this article and found it such a sweet story that I just couldn’t help not using it, so this one is to help you go over past tenses (active and passive ) and some present tenses too.
The source is Metro.co.uk
I say British because Christmas is celebrated almost all over the world and obviously, everybody has their way of doing this. If you’re from a country but you live in another one (like me), you will most probably blend both traditions which means that on Christmas Day you might eat a typical Majorcan soup for starters and have turkey as main dish, just to set an example. It might also mean that you have to behave extra-well if you want both, Santa and the Three Kings to call round, but it will also sound a bit awkward for relatives back in England when you tell them that you are still feasting and celebrating when they have already got back to their daily routine at the workplace and have probably been on a diet for the last fortnight (getting rid of those extra Christmas calories). Anyway, whatever you do and whatever your beliefs are, I think Christmas is a lovely moment to enjoy time with your loved ones and to reach out to those you haven’t seen for some time just to remind them how much you love and care for them. That for me is what really matters at Christmas, don’t you agree?
Here you have a Christmas quiz on some cultural aspects from British Christmas. I hope you enjoy it.
Ho, ho, ho!!!!
Take the quizWhich option should we use? Here are a couple of tips. After, click on the activity button for some practice.
Go + place
Go + -ing (activity noun)
‘Where do you usually go on Saturdays?’ On Saturdays I go dancing (here the person goes somewhere to do this).
Do + noun
Play + noun
Play + the name of instrument
I play the piano. What instrument do you play?
If somebody asks you something like the samples below…
…they are using the future perfect and we’d usually answer this in the following way
Here’s a fun way to do some language drills.
HOW TO PLAY
In the first wheel you will find expressions related to actions.
In this wheel you will find expressions related to time.
travel (uncountable noun) term used to refer to the act or activity of travelling.
travel (verb intransitive transitive) to go from one place to another. When meaning long distances, we usually use travel instead of trip. We also use this word when we talk about travelling for a reason such as work, etc.
trip (countable noun) an excursion or a journey somewhere and back, especially for pleasure.
journey (countable noun) the act of travelling from one place and another. Here the focus is placed on talking about what happens between the beginning and ending of these points. For example, if going from Madrid to Paris on a train, you enjoyed it because it was quick, you had a good meal and a nice nap, you would say something like ‘your journey was nice’. But if you had bad weather, the food was horrible and the person on the seat next to you, kept dropping off, snoring almost all the way, you’d probably say that your ‘journey was horrible’.
Both are verb associated to communication but both are used quite differently. Look at some of the examples of how to use these words.
say something/say something to somebody/say as a reporting verb.
Say in impersonal passive structures
Say + what/how/when/why
tell somebody something / tell somebody to do something
tell somebody about something/tell a joke or a story
We don’t use say to somebody.
It is much more common to use ‘tell’ for orders
The song I have chosen here is a song by Jeff Lynne ‘When I was a boy’ to learn how to speak about the past, the dreams and the hopes we had as children. As the lyrics say, the person singing says that as a boy all he really wanted to do was to pick up his guitar and play music. Money wasn’t important because there were other things that made him happy, like listening to the radio and dreaming about his future.
What dreams did you have when you were a child?
