Pronuntiation of the U in English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GPGqpOc4Bo

participle clause.

Participle clauses

Participle clauses are a bit like relative clauses – they give us more information.

• People wearing carnival costumes filled the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
• The paintings stolen from the National Gallery last week have been found.

The participle clauses (‘wearing …’ and ‘stolen ….’) act like relative clauses. We could say:

• People who were wearing carnival costumes filled the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
• The paintings which were stolen from the National Gallery last week have been found.

With the Past Participle

• A pair of shoes worn by Marilyn Monroe have been sold for fifty thousand dollars.
• Trees blown down in last night’s storms are being removed this morning.

We use the past participle – ‘blown’ in the last example but the ending ‘-ed’ is used in regular verbs – when the meaning is passive.

With the Present Participle

• A woman carrying a bright green parrot walked into the room.
• A man holding a gun shouted at us to lie down.

We use the present participle - the ‘-ing’ form – to form the participle clause when the meaning is active.

Notice that the participle clauses with the present participle have a continuous meaning. If we replaced them with a relative clause it would be in a continuous tense.

• A man holding a gun has the same meaning as A man who was holding a gun.

We can’t make a participle clause with a present participle when the meaning is not continuous.

• The woman living next door is on holiday.
• The woman who lives next door is on holiday. Source:https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/es/grammar-reference/participle-clauses

We start this week with some news...

Brazil's presidential race will go to a 

second round after incumbent Dilma 

Rousseff fell short of an outright victory 

in Sunday's election.

She received 42% of the vote and will face centre-right rival Aecio Neves, who won 34%, on 26 October.

In a surprise result, prominent environmentalist Marina Silva got only 21% despite being a favourite at one stage, and is now out of the race.

Analysts now predict a tight contest as both candidates seek to pick up votes.

Reacting to the result Ms Rousseff - who has served one four-year term as president - said people had expressed their rejection of "the ghosts of the past, recession and unemployment", and vowed to continue to work for change.

"I clearly understood the message from the streets and from the ballot boxes. The majority of Brazilians want us to speed up the Brazil we are building," said Ms Rousseff, who heads the left-wing Workers' Party (PT).

Mr Neves, 54, a senator and former governor of Minas Gerais state, called on Ms Silva's supporters to back him, saying he represented "hope for change".

Hong Kong protests: Civil servants work as numbers drop

Hundreds of pro-democracy campaigners remain camped out on the streets of Hong Kong as a government deadline for them to leave passed without incident.

But their numbers have dwindled and civil servants have returned to work in the government's headquarters.

The protesters are angry at China's plans to vet candidates when Hong Kong holds elections in 2017.

They are demanding that the central government in Beijing allow a fully free vote for the territory's leader.

On Monday evening, more than 1,000 protesters remained in three key locations - a far smaller crowd than over the weekend.

The BBC's Juliana Liu in Hong Kong says protesters appear to have decided to beat a strategic, possibly temporary, retreat - partly out of sheer exhaustion, as the demonstrations entered their second week.

She says activists have been encouraged by news that student leaders have begun meeting government officials to lay the groundwork for talks on political reform.

The first round of talks ended on Sunday night without agreement but the two sides agreed to meet again on Monday evening.

Tens of thousands of people have been on the streets in the past week, but only about 100 protesters remained outside government offices at the Admiralty protest site on Monday morning, and just 10 people were sitting outside the chief executive's office, according to the South China Morning Post earlier on Monday.

Several hundred remain in Mong Kok, north of the harbour, despite earlier calls by organisers for protesters to withdraw from that site, following clashes at the weekend with people opposed to the demonstrations. A smaller number of protesters are still camped out at Causeway Bay.

Police said on Monday that at least 37 people had been arrested so far in Mong Kok. They said five others had been arrested for allegedly hacking government websites.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia/

If we want a happy monday, we have Bruno Mars!

Modal Forms

Modal Simple
I could swim at the beach.

Modal Continuous 
I could be swimming at the beach right now.

Modal Perfect 
I could have swum at the beach yesterday.

Modal Perfect Continuous 
I could have been swimming at the beach instead of working in the office.

Passive Modal Simple 
The room should be cleaned once a day.

Passive Modal Continuous 
The room should be being cleaned now.

Passive Modal Perfect 
The room should have been cleaned yesterday.

Passive Modal Perfect Continuous 
The room should have been being cleaned but nobody was there. (Rare form)

resource:http://www.englishpage.com/modals/modalforms.html

Possessives Nouns

POSSESSIVES NOUNS

We use a noun with ’s with a singular noun to show possession:

We are having a party at John’s house.
Michael drove his friend’s car.

We use s’ with a plural noun ending in -s:

This is my parents’ house.
Those are ladies’ shoes.

But we use ’s with other plural nouns:

These are men’s shoes.
Children’s clothes are very expensive.

We can use a possessive instead of a noun phrase to avoid repeating words:

Is that John’s car?		No, it’s Mary’s [car].	>	No, it’s Mary’s.
Whose coat is this?		It’s my wife’s [coat].	>	It’s my wife’s.

Source: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/possessives/possessives-nouns#sthash.SwNnGJi7.dpuf

Reflexive Pronouns

Uses of Reflexive Pronouns:

1- With verbs like 
blame (culpar, echar la culpa a), cut (cortar), enjoy (disfrutar), help (ayudar), hurt (hacerse daño), introduce (presentarse),  prepare (preparar), teach (enseñar)...

2- To make a emphasis in the subject

3- By+ Reflexive pronoun = Alone

4- Some Expressions: 

• Behave yourselves! (¡Compórtate bien!)
• Help yourself. (Sírvete tú mismo.)
• Make yourself at home. (Siéntete como en tu propia casa.)
• Source:http://www.curso-ingles.com/gramatica-inglesa/pronombres-reflexivos.php

Myself	yo mismo, a mí	I saw it  myself.
Yourself	tú mismo (a ti), usted mismo (a usted)	Don't burn yourself!
Himself	él mismo, a sí mismo	He hurt himself.
Herself	ella misma, a sí misma	She did it herself.
Itself	él mismo, a sí mismo	The cat scratched itself.
Ourselves	nosotros mismos	We made it ourselves.
Yourselves	vosotros mismos, ustedes mismos	Did you paint the house yourselves?
Themselves	ellos mismos	They were speaking to themselves.