Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

Oh hell, we’re out of milk!

• afraid so, or I’m afraid so, means ‘Unfortunately you’re right’ or

‘Unfortunately what you say is correct’.

Language point 24 – ‘did’ auxiliary

We have already seen doas an AUXILIARY in the present simple (Language point 12):

Do you speak Italian?

(present simple question)

I don’t speak Italian

(present simple negative)

but

I speak Italian

not

‘I do speak Italian’

If we change do(present) to did(past) and use it with the BASE-FORM in the same way, we can talk about the past: Did you get any milk?

(past simple question)

I didn’t get any teabags

(past simple negative)

But in ordinary statements (in just the same way as the present simple) we don’t use the doauxiliary – so in Dialogue 2 Helen says: I got a pint

not

‘I did get a pint’

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– she uses the past simple got. We will see how to do past simple statements in Unit 9 – for now remember the difference between the doand didauxiliaries.

Exercise 3

Complete the sentences using either do or did.

1

____ you see Gerry yesterday?

2

____ you speak English?

3

____ you know where the bank is?

4

____ you get enough wine for the party?

5

____ you go to work by bus usually?

6

____ you go to work by bus today?

7

____ you watch the film on TV last night?

8

____ you know what the capital of Switzerland is?

Exercise 4

Fill in the blanks from the box – you can use each word only once.

1

Doyour parents live nearby?

2

____ Fiona speak French?

3

Su and Shamira ____ like the cold weather.

4

I ____ buy enough food for the party, I’m afraid.

5

We ____ usually buy a Sunday paper.

6

____ Justine tell you about the party?

7

James ____ like hot food.

8

____ they want to come to the party with us?

did

don’t

does

do

don’t

doesn’t

do

didn’t

Dialogue 3

Jenny’s in the pub with her friends. She’s ordering drinks at the bar.

JENNY:

Two lemonades, please.

ASSISTANT:

Would you like ice with those?

JENNY:

Yes please. And a pint of lager . . .

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ASSISTANT:

We haven’t got any lager today.

JENNY:

Oh. What kind of beer have you got, then?

ASSISTANT:

We haven’t got any.

JENNY:

No beer? OK, I’ll have a glass of wine.

ASSISTANT:

Red or white?

JENNY:

Red, please.

ASSISTANT:

We haven’t got any more red, unfortunately.

JENNY:

Oh for goodness sake! – white , then!

ASSISTANT:

We haven’t got any white either.

JENNY:

Just give me three bags of crisps, then.

ASSISTANT:

Sold out.

JENNY:

No beer, no wine, no crisps, What kind of pub is this?

ASSISTANT:

A bad one.

Idiom

• When something is sold outit means the shop has sold it all and there’s none left:

We’ve sold out of oranges

= ‘We’ve sold all our oranges (so you can’t buy any here)’

• We say for goodness sakewhen we are irritated or cross about something, or we are losing our patience with the situation. It’s not rude when said to people that you are on informal or friendly terms with.

Oh hurry up, for goodness sake!

Oh for goodness sake, stop complaining!

Language point 25 – ‘have’

We saw gotin Language point 24 – but gotis also used with haveto show possession in colloquial English. In Dialogue 3 the barman says:

We haven’t got any lager

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Look at some more examples:

I’ve got five pounds

Terry hasn’t got any money at all

Susan’s got a Ferrari

Have you got a ten-pound note?

Notice that gotdoesn’t change, but that havechanges to hasfor the third person singular, and that we use SHORT FORMS of havein statements, and LONG FORMS + n’tin the negative: I’ve

I haven’t

you’ve

you haven’t

he’s

he hasn’t

got

got

she’s

she hasn’t

we’ve

we haven’t

they’ve

they haven’t

This meaning of gotis different from the one Helen uses in Dialogue 2, when she says I got some apples. Compare these two sentences: I got some apples

=

‘I bought some apples’

(action of getting)

I’ve got some apples=

‘I have some apples’ (possession)

We’ve already seen that get/ gothas a number of different meanings

– and this is true of haveas well. Jenny says: I’ll have a glass of wine

Here she isn’t talking about possession, she’s using I’ll haveto order a drink or say what she wants. Similarly, if someone wants to buy someone else a drink, they often say:

What’ll you have?

Because this isn’t possession, we don’t use have got, so we can’t say:

‘I’ll have got a glass of wine.’

‘What’ll you have got?’

We’ll see other uses of havein later units.

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Exercise 5

These sentences all use have gotto talk about possession – change them as indicated. The first two are done for you.

1

Dave’s got a new car.

[?] Has Dave got a new car?

2

You haven’t got a phone.

[?] Have you got a phone?

3

Has he got time?

[+] _____________________

4

I haven’t got enough time.

[+] _____________________

5

Have they got enough money? [–] _____________________

6

Su’s got a car.

[–] _____________________

7

We haven’t got the tickets.

[?] _____________________

8

Has Fiona got them?

[+] _____________________

Exercise 6

Put a tick against the possession sentences, and a cross against the others.

1 I have eggs for breakfast every morning. __

2 Jenny’s got a big paper bag.

__

3 Have you got any money on you?

__

4 I’ll have a cup of coffee, please.

__

5 My brother hasn’t got a jacuzzi.

__