Friday 31 January 2014

COLLOCATIONS:Absolute Beginner Course Lesson 1-Spoken English Grammar-Speaking Fluent & Better English Fast, Easy

Posted by Nash Biani 

             ABSOLUTE BEGINNER COURSE 

        SPOKEN ENGLISH

                                                 lesson  1
                                                    Page 4

         

  Page 1
  Page 2
      Page 3
      Page 4

Hello and welcome to our Mehfil of English Aam. I'm Nash Biani with you and in today's English Aam Spoken English Video Mehfil we will look at the collocations on Page 2 of Absolute Beginner Course Lesson # 1. You were asked to write these collocations in your English Aam Spoken English Collocations Book. Please keep your book before you and join me. In this Video Mehfil and in this lesson we will see how these collocations can be useful to us and we will also practise speaking them.

COLLOCATIONS CAN BE A GREAT HELP TO IMPROVE ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS AND TO LEARN FLUENT SPOKEN ENGLISH

Collocations help us to improve our English speaking skills by giving us ready phrases to use at suitable times. Let us see how we can speak English more fluently with the help of these collocations.

Please copy the examples given on this page into your English Aam Spoken English Collocations Book.


1. small thing: This can be used to describe a small article like a key or an eraser (rubber) or a small computer part or other such things. But it can also be used to talk about a non-physical thing like an idea or a small misunderstanding.

2. small matter: you can use this when you are speaking of a small problem or maybe a small inconvenience or a small misunderstanding.

3. small problem: similar to small matter.

4. small issue: Also similar to small matter.

5. What's wrong with him?: You use this to enquire about what the matter is with someone. He appears to be ill or someone else says he is not well. Or you ask someone why a particular person seems upset or in a bad mood. Of course, it can used with other pronouns or nouns.
Examples:
   1. 'What's wrong with her?'
   2. 'What's wrong with you?'
   3. 'What's wrong with those guys?'
   4. 'What's wrong with Bob?'


6. What's happened to him?: Very similar to 'What's wrong with him?'

7. 'What's with him?' : Use this to ask why someone is upset or in a bad mood.

8. I'm fond of...': Use this to talk about something or somebody you like very much. A variation of this is
'I'm very fond of...'
Examples:
   1. I'm fond of books.
   2. I'm fond of ice-cream.
   3. We're all fond of ice-cream.
   4. I'm very fond of my son.
   5. He's fond of...
   6. She's fond of...
   7. She's fond of mangoes.
   8. She's fond of books.
   9. She's fond of reading.
 10. She's fond of singing.
 11. She's fond of music.
 12. You're fond of...
 13. I'm fond of singing.
 14. I'm fond of reading.
 15. I'm fond of watching movies.
 16. He's fond of reading.
 17. Reema's fond of watching movies.
 18. Salma's fond of reading books.
 19. Reema's fond of movies.

9. I like: You will use this very often as you can see in these examples:
Examples:
   1. I like movies.
   2. I like books.
   3. I like samosas.
   4. I like sandwiches.
   5. I like reading.
   6. I like cricket.
   7. I like you.
   8. I like it.

10. we like

11. you like

12. he likes

13. she likes

14. it likes

15. Salma likes mangoes.

16. I remember: When something, some event or somebody from the past comes to your mind.
Examples:
   1. I remember his name was Amit.
   2. I remember her name was Seema.

17. I wasn't able to: When you were not able to do something.
Examples:
   1. I wasn't able to send the email.
   2. I wasn't able to open this software.
   3. I wasn't able to do that.
   4. I wasn't able to go there yesterday.

18. you weren't able to: When the person you are speaking with was not able to do something.
Example:
   1. You weren't able to send it yesterday, so send it today.

19. We weren't able to
Example:
   1. We weren't able to reach in time.

20. They weren't able to:

21. He wasn't able to:
Example:
   1. He wasn't able to play the match.

22. She wasn't able to:
Examples:
   1. She wasn't able to come yesterday.
   2. She wasn't able to do it.
   3. She wasn't able to talk to him.
   4. She wasn't able to express herself.

23. I wasn't able to express my idea.

24. She talked with me.

25. She talked to me.
      He talked to me.
      You talked to me.

26. on behalf of...:
Example:
   1. I welcome you on behalf of the company.

This spoken English lesson needs practising the collocations to improve fluency and increase confidence in speaking English.

We have looked at these collocations and practised them them to some extent in the Video Mehfil. But this is not enough. You have to practise more. On line, you can play the video again and again. Off line, you can use your English Aam Spoken English Collocations Book to practise the collocations. Remember, the more you practise, the better.

Please share in your social media circles by clicking on the buttons below.

You can join me on Facebook by liking my page. Just click on the Facebook button either in the panel on the right or at the very bottom of this page.

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And yes, your comments and queries are welcome. Please use the comments box below.

All the best, all the time J








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Tuesday 21 January 2014

VOCABULARY:Absolute Beginner Course Lesson 1-Spoken English Tutorial To Learn Basic Grammar & Improve Fluency

Posted By Nash Biani 



        ABSOLUTE BEGINNER COURSE

  SPOKEN ENGLISH

   
               LESSON 1    
                
             Page 3 

             Vocabulary 

  Page 1
  Page 2
      Page 3
      Page 4

    

                   How to Speak Fluent English by Practising Speaking Words & Sentences             


 Hello everybody, I'm Nash Biani with you once more, welcoming you to our Mehfil-e-English Aam. In this Video Mehfil today, we will look at the word-list (the vocabulary list) given to you on page 2 of Absolute Beginner Course Lesson 1. You had been asked to write down this list of words in your English Aam Spoken English Vocabulary Book. You have to write the meanings of the words in your mother tongue after looking up the words in your English to mother tongue dictionary. If you haven't written the words you can go to that page and write them down. If you have already written the words and looked up the meanings, you will know what these words mean in your language. Even if you haven't yet got the meanings, you can take part in the English Aam Spoken English Video Mehfil for this lesson and practise speaking with me to understand the pronunciation of these words.

 Remember, you have to speak with me. That is most important. I am speaking and pronouncing the words so that you may join me in practising how to say them.

 So, now we look at the first word in this list. Remember, don't write the meanings I discuss either in this lesson or in the Video Mehfil for this lesson. You have to write the meanings in your English Aam Spoken English Vocabulary Book from your dictionary.
The pronunciation notations given against the words in this and other lessons on this blog do not confirm to standard phonetic notations.These are just rough and ready indicators to go with the pronunciation explanations in the English Aam Spoken English Video Mehfils and are not meant to be scholarly representations of the pronunciation or phonetics.



1. poet: peu-it  (refer to the Video Mehfil for pronunciation guidance)

 This word has two syllables as you can see. The stress is on the first syllable - peu. Raise the pitch of your voice slightly when you say the first syllable. The second syllable is at a normal pitch and is pronounced 'it' not 'et'. Follow this in the Video Mehfil. Word stress and syllable stress are important in Spoken English.

Producing the Sound of 'P' in Spoken English


Pay attention to the sound of the letter 'p'. When speaking English, the 'p' sound has to be plosive. This means, you explode the sound.

 Explode the sound? How?

1. Put your lips together gently but firmly.

2. Form a small, tiny bubble of air in your mouth,              behind your closed lips. It is this tiny bubble that you will explode when you make the sound of 'p'.In fact, you will not need to actually form thebubble behind your lips it will form there byitself.

3. Now, make the 'p' sound by moving your lips and       allowing the air bubble to explode gently. The key word here is gently. Don't overdo it. Watch the Video Mehfil for help.

Coming back to the first syllable of the word poet, the sound you have to make is 'peu' with 'p' being plosive. Refer to the Video Mehfil.
The second syllable is to be pronounced 'it'. So what you get is 'peu-it'. The bold letters indicate the stressed syllable, that is, where you need to raise the pitch of your voice.
2. poetry: peu-it-ri (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                                      pronunciation guidance)

 3. poem: peu-im (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                                        pronunciation guidance)

 Now try pronouncing these three words - poet,poetry,poem- a few times. This practice is very important if you want to speak English fluently. These three words will give you good practice in producing the 'p' sound and the 'eu' sound.

 4. welcome: well-cum (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                                  pronunciation guidance)
When you speak English, you should produce the sound of the letter 'w' with your lips rounded. Be careful your lower lip doesn't touch your upper teeth as this will create the 'v' sound. See how it is done in the Video Mehfil.

 5. habit:  ha-bit(refer to the Video Mehfil for                                                    pronunciation guidance)
The first syllable is the stressed one in this two syllable word. Now here again, we have a very often used sound in spoken English. This sound, which we use here for the first syllable -'ha' will be found in many words as we speak English more and more. Please observe very carefully in the Video Mehfil how to produce this sound. In fact, you will also find in the Video Mehfil, a few other words which require this sound.
Example:
'That's a very bad habit.'
6. memory: me-m-ri (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                                    pronunciation guidance)
Example:
'He has a fantastic memory.'

 7. beginning: be-gin-ing (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                             pronunciation guidance)
Examples:
   1. 'The movie's just beginning.'
   2. 'I'm just beginning to understand this.'
   3. 'It's beginning to rain!'
   4. 'From the very beginning.'
   5. 'What happened in the beginning of the meeting?'
8. start
Examples:
   1. 'Let's start it.'
   2. 'Start the car.'
   3. 'Don't start that.'

 9. child
       Singular: child
       Plural    : children: child-ren

10. mother tongue: mer-der-tung (refer to the Video                               Mehfil for pronunciation guidance)
Examples:
   1. What's your mother tongue?
   2. What's his mother tongue?

 11. month:

 12. age: ayj (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                                         pronunciation guidance)  

 13. sentence: sen-tents (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                              pronunciation guidance)
Notice the sound of the second 't' in this word. Although we write only one 't' in this word, while speaking English, we will produce the sound of a second 't' which is not there in the spelling.
Examples:
   1. Read this sentence.
   2. Write a sentence.

 14. small
Example:
   'We have a small problem here.'

 15. cute
Example
   1. 'A small, cute little child.'
   2. 'What a small, cute little pet.'

 16. pretty: pri-ti
Example
   'She wore a very pretty dress.'

 17. lovable: lov-a-bl (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                               pronunciation guidance)
Example:
   'She's a lovable child.'

 18. lovely: lov-li (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                               pronunciation guidance)
Example
   'What a lovely evening we had.'

 All these words like lovable, cute, lovely, pretty, are so common in English. We will use them a lot when we speak English more often. You should practise these words well.

 19. method: me-thod

 20. but:
This word 'but' has two forms of pronunciation. The strong form and the weak form. There are many English words which have more than one form of pronunciation. Some of these words have what we may call a strong, a medium and a weak form while others have only two - strong and weak. As we start speaking English more fluently we go from the stronger to the weaker pronunciation in general. This word 'but' has two forms. Please take part in the Video Mehfil to understand this better.

 21. necessary : ne-se-sari  (refer to the Video Mehfil                                         for pronunciation guidance) 
Example:
  1. 'That's not necessary at all.'
  2. 'It's necessary that you give us the form.'
  3. 'Is that necessary?'

 I hope you speak with me in the English Aam Spoken English Video Mehfils. Or is it that I keep speaking and you don't speak at all? Am I talking to the walls? As the poet or shayar says,'Deewaron se milkar rona achcha lagta hai, hum bhi pagal ho jayenge aisa lagta hai.' So, am I speaking to the walls? No. I know you are speaking with me. And if you are not, then I request you to please do so. Look, you started watching the English Aam Spoken English Videos, you started attending the Video Mehfils and you started reading and following these lessons because you want  to improve your English. So, please speak along with me.

 22. together: ta-ge-der (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                           pronunciation guidance)
Examples:
   1. 'We went there together.'
   2. 'Put it all together.'
23. involved: in-volvd (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                                 pronunciation guidance)
Example:
   'Don't get involved in that.'
24. included: in-clu-did (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                            pronunciation guidance)
25. miss
Examples:
   1. 'That's Miss Denver.'
   2. 'Don't miss your bus.'
   3. 'I'll miss you when you go to London.'

 26. remember: ri-mem-ber (refer to the Video Mehfil                                         for pronunciation guidance)
27. natural: na-ch-rl (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                                pronunciation guidance)
28. come

 29. give

 30. all
Examples:
   1. 'All of that.'
   2. 'All I said was...'

 31. atmosphere: at-ms-phere (refer to the Video                                       Mehfil for pronunciation guidance)
32. polite: pa-lite (refer to the Video Mehfil for                                                 pronunciation guidance)
Examples:
   1.'You have to be polite to them.'
   2. 'She's very polite.'
33. impolite: im-pa-lite(refer to the Video Mehfil for                                                pronunciation guidance)
Example:
   'Don't be impolite.'

 You have to read and study this lesson along with the English Aam Spoken English Video Mehfil for it. In this lesson we have tried to improve English pronunciation. You have to practise pronouncing these words again and again for the full benefit of this lesson.
Please let me know your views on this lesson by writing in the comments box below. 

 Please 'like' my page on English Aam on Facebook. You can go there by clicking on the FB button in the panel on the right or the one on the bottom of this page.

 Follow me on Twitter. Again, there's a button for this in the right hand panel.

 And hey guys, please do click on the 'like' buttons for the videos on YouTube and also share with all the people you can share with. 

 All the best, all the time J

                  


















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Tuesday 14 January 2014

ENGLISH CONVERSATION PRACTICE-English Aam Kulfi Season 1# 3-Parvez & Sushil:Waiting For The Lift-How To Improve My Spoken English? Grammar Lesson:Learn To Speak

Posted by Nash Biani 

 english grammar spoken speaking speak fluent fast confident lesson learn how can know tips

English Aam Kulfi 

                   Mast Mast !

                    SEASON 1
                   No 3    

           Parvez and Sushil :
            Waiting for the Lift                    Page 2 

Page 1
Page 2



 Hey guys, today is a really wonderful day. I mean we are celebrating two festivals today. It is Eid-e-Milad and Makar Shankranti together today, so - double fun! How many of you guys flew kites today? Have fun everybody but spare a few minutes for your English Aam Kulfi Mast Mast!

How to learn to speak English by speaking with people  in English. 

I hope you have tried the translation quiz I posted yesterday. It is the sort of conversation we have with our friends and neighbours almost every day. Were you able to make out who Sushil is? There is a small clue in the conversation. We know that Parvez has just left for the market and there is a mention of a lift in the conversation. What that does that tell you about Sushil? Who could Sushil be?

As we go along in our story with English Aam Kulfi Mast Mast! you will be introduced to many people. In a story, such people are called characters. So up to now we know something about three characters in our …serial! J

Of course, we will meet more people and get to know a lot about them as we go along. We will try to be with them as they go along with their lives. We will see them in their work places, in their homes, in their shopping malls. We will enjoy movies and dinners with them and we will share their joys, sorrow, aspirations and disappointments. All in English.
But hey, it will be fun only if you try to work on the translation quizzes, all right? So please do try to solve the quizzes.

Now, let’s look at how we can translate this conversation into English. Remember, this translation (with options at certain places) is just one among several ways of saying all this in English.

 Spoken English in real life situations helps us to learn to speak better English.


सुशिल: हाई परवेज़,कैसे हो?
Sushil: Hi Parvez, how are you?
This greeting and of course, quite a few others, is used only when we meet someone we know. If we meet someone for the first time, there are other ways of greeting which we will see in later lessons. So the way Sushil greets Parvez tells us that the two know each other and are friendly.

परवेज़: ठीक हूँ। तुम कैसे हो? 
Parvez: I'm okay. How are you?

Now here, instead of 'okay' Parvez could also have said 'fine'. 

सुशिल: ठीक हूँ। 
Sushil: I'm fine.
Sushil could have said, 
'I'm okay.' 
'I'm okay too.'
'I'm fine.'
'I'm fine too.'
All these are collocations (as we define collocations in the English Aam Spoken English Programme) and they need to be practised well.

परवेज़: आज छुट्टी है तुम्हें?
Parvez: You have a holiday today?
The actual question should be
'Do you have a holiday today?'
Such questions are called 'yes or no' questions because the answer to such a question will begin with either a 'yes' or a 'no'. In our programme we also call such questions 'confirmation' questions. Such questions can be asked in almost any tense or sub-tense (again, as we call them!) and they start with the helping or auxiliary verb. However, when speaking English people very often drop the helping verb so that their English sounds less formal and more natural. We will see many,many examples of this in the days ahead.

सुशिल: हाँ है तो। और तुम्हे?
Sushil: Yes, I do. And you?

Both parts of Sushil's reply are collocations for us. Let's consider the first part - Yes, I do. This is called a short answer. It starts with yes or no and ends in the helping verb contained in the question. In this case, although Sushil doesn't use the helping verb 'do' it is understood to be there as the tense used is the Simple Present Tense. Be careful here, as sometimes people make the mistake of saying
'Yes, I have.'
That would be wrong. Consider this:
'(Have) You got a holiday today?'
'Yes, I have.'
This is correct.
Now let's have a look at the second part of Sushil's reply which is actually a question - And you? This is again a collocation (at least for us) and we will use it in many situations so practise it very well. It's small but very useful.

परवेज़: मुझे भी छुट्टी है। 
Parvez : I have a holiday too.

सुशिल: तो आज छुट्टी मनाओगे?
Sushil: So, will you enjoy your holiday today?
                                 OR
           So, you'll enjoy your holiday today?
The first option here is the more grammatically correct one but most people, when the speak English casually, would use the second. In either case, the helping verb is 'will'. So, when Parvez gives a short answer, he uses will to end it as we see below.

परवेज़: हाँ मनाएंगे तो। 
Parvez: Yes, I will.
Refer to the discussion we had earlier in this lesson about using helping verbs in short answers and what we discussed in the paragraph just before this. Don't worry we will discuss the structure of the short answer again and again as we get chances to do so.

सुशिल: कोई ख़ास?
Sushil: Anything special?
This is a short cut. What Sushil means is obviously,
'Have you planned anything special?'
                     OR
'Are you doing anything special?'
But this short question is good enough. It's a collocation that we will find very handy. 
परवेज़: ऐसा है कि कुछ मेहमान आ रहें हैं। 
Parvez: Well, we have some guests coming over.
                                 OR
            Well, we are expecting some guests.
Look at the use of the word 'well' in these sentences. It fills in for -ऐसा है कि . 'Well' has other meanings and uses too which we will look into as the opportunity arises.
 सुशिल: अच्छा है।  
Sushil: That's nice.


परवेज़: लो लिफ्ट आगयी। 
Parvez: 'There's the lift!'
                      OR
             'Here's the lift!'

So, how did you do? Keep doing these translation quizzes and very soon you'll find them very easy. They will help you speak the English you want because I have designed these conversations on the principle of 'volume and repetition' which is the basis of our total immersion programme - English Aam Spoken English Programme'

Here's the full conversation: 



Sushil: Hi Parvez, how are you?

 Parvez: I'm okay. How are you?

 Sushil: I'm fine.

 Parvez: You have a holiday today?

 Sushil: Yes, I do. And you?

 Parvez : I have a holiday too.
Sushil:  So, you'll enjoy your holiday today?
Parvez: Yes, I will.
Sushil: Anything special?
Parvez: Well, we have some guests coming over.
Sushil: That's nice.
Parvez: 'There's the lift!' 
 सुशिल: हाई परवेज़,कैसे हो?
 परवेज़: ठीक हूँ। तुम कैसे हो? 
सुशिल: ठीक हूँ। 
परवेज़: आज छुट्टी है तुम्हें?
सुशिल: हाँ है तो। और तुम्हे?
परवेज़: मुझे भी छुट्टी है। 
सुशिल: तो आज छुट्टी मनाओगे?
परवेज़: हाँ मनाएंगे तो। 
सुशिल: कोई ख़ास?
परवेज़: ऐसा है कि कुछ मेहमान आ रहें हैं। 
सुशिल: अच्छा है। 
परवेज़: लो लिफ्ट आगयी। 

Write down the following in your English Aam Spoken English Collocations book.

1. How are you?
2. I'm okay.
3. I'm fine.
4. And you?
5. You have a
6. Do you have a
7. You have a book?
8. Yes, I do.
9. Yes, I will.
10. anything special?
11. we have
12. we have some
13. we have some guests
14. That's nice!

See how the entire conversation was full of collocations.
Please let me know how you like this episode of English Aam Kulfi Mast Mast! by making a comment in the comment box below.

Please follow me on Facebook and Twitter by clicking on the buttons in the panel on the right of this post page.

Share with your friends and social media circles by clicking on the share buttons below. Let me know how you find it by ticking in the response boxes below - funny, interesting, cool.
     
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Kulfi # 1
Kulfi # 2
Kulfi # 3


 




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