20191016

Back from class.


Taking from where we had left it on Monday, we started talking about languages and ways other languages surprised us ... I mentioned gender in languages, specifically mentioning Spanish vs German and how people assign different qualities to the same word because in one language is feminine and in the other is masculine .... we quickly moved onto the Sapir Whorf hypothesis and discussed the links between thought and language and if it possible to think without a language ... very enjoyable and very philosophical!

Then we touched a bit of grammar focusing on the perfect tense, with a bit of listening and some verb exercises.

The perfect tense is definitely useful and can indeed be beautiful ... but, the proper rules can get a little bit mystifying!

Present Perfect: I've read Orwell before.
Present Perfect Continuous: I've been reading Orwell for years now.
Past Perfect: I had read Orwell well before college.
Past Perfect Continuous: I had been reading Orwell for years, but then life kept me away from books.
Future Perfect: I will have read 1984 by Orwell again by next Christmas.
Future Perfect Continuous: This time next year I will have been reading Orwell long enough to take on a Masters Degree on it!

(some of the examples work better than others!)

Funny thing: The Present Perfect and the Present Perfect Continuous, despite their names, are actually Past Tenses ... well, at least they refer to the past.

Of course the whole thing can get way more complicated ... but Manuel assures me that there won't be questions on verb conjugation in the C1 exams ... what a relief!!


I have found this on the Cambridge website:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/tenses-and-time


https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/verbs



Tomorrow: EU Council Meeting ... big day!!