Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

_____________________________________ .

4 Asking for things in English is easy.

______________________________ .

5 Setting fire to your nose is stupid.

___________________________ .

6 Learning Vietnamese is very hard for English people.

_________________________________________ .

7 Eating biscuits in front of the TV is nice.

________________________________ .

8 Jumping off high buildings is very dangerous.

____________________________________ .

9 Watching French films is fun.

_______________________ .

10 Reading long books is exhausting.

___________________________ .

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Morning

Afternoon

Dialogue 3

Hannah and Simon are planning a picnic with Abigail and Gary, but Hannah’s a bit worried about the weather.

HANNAH:

Will it rain later, do you think?

SIMON:

[ looks in the paper ] The forecast says it’ll be sunny till lunchtime.

HANNAH:

What about this afternoon?

SIMON:

[ looks in the paper again ] Clouds and wind will come in from the west.

HANNAH:

So it won’t rain today, then?

SIMON:

I don’t think so – but it’ll be chilly for a picnic.

HANNAH:

Let’s put it off till tomorrow, shall we?

SIMON:

OK. Will you phone Abigail and Gary to let them know?

HANNAH:

I’ll do that right now.

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Language point 43 – ‘will’ future

There are a number of ways of talking about the FUTURE in English.

In Language point 37 we used the PRESENT SIMPLE after words like when, and in Language point 41 we saw two more ways: the PRESENT

CONTINUOUS and be going to.

We can also talk about the future using the AUXILIARY will+ BASE-FORM of the verb. This auxiliary (as with most auxiliaries in English) doesn’t change for different persons:

I will

you will

he will

not ‘he wills’

In colloquial English willis usually shortened to ’ll, and there are the following pronunciations, which you should learn: I’ll

/ɑil/

we’ll

/wil/

you’ll

/jul/

they’ll

/ðεil/

he’ll

/hil/

Peter’ll

/`pitərəl/

she’ll

/ʃil/

Jane’ll

/`εinəl/

But in questions we always use the full form will, not ’ll: Will it rain?

not ‘ ’ll it rain?’

and we always use the full form in tags:

Yes, it will

not ‘Yes, it’ll’

As with all auxiliaries, we form the negative by adding not– but in colloquial English we have a special short form for will not: won’t

/wəυnt/.

We use the will-future in two main situations:

(1) to talk about things we know or expect will happen: The next train will leave at eight o’clock

China will win the international swimming competition The children will enjoy the trip to the cinema

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(2) to express intention to do something in the near future : I’ll phone you at about six

We’ll book the tickets today

I’ll go upstairs and tell James

We also use willin the phrase Will you . . .?+ BASE-FORM: Will you phone Dave and Pete?

When Alex says this, she is not asking about the future – she’s making a request (asking someone to do something). This is the normal way of making requests in English – here are some more examples:

Will you open the door for me?

Will you help me with my homework?

Will you check the oil in the car, please?

And we use won’twhen we refuse to do something: I won’t help him because I don’t like him

Exercise 4

Rewrite these future sentences using going toor will/ won’t– the first one has been done for you.

1 I’ll phone him tomorrow.

I’m going to phone him

tomorrow.

2 Is Amanda going to stay

here?

________________________ ?

3 They’re not going to wait

for us.

________________________ .

4 Will Dave be here tomorrow?

________________________ ?

5 We’ll show you the sights.

________________________ .

6 The weather is going to get

better.

________________________ .

7 James won’t forget, will he?

____________, __________ ?

8 I won’t do my homework yet.

________________________ .

9 Suzie isn’t going to be there.

________________________ .

10 Is Fred going to read that

book?

________________________ ?

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Exercise 5

Correct the following sentences. Be careful – two of them don’t need correcting.

1 Do you go to phone them?

2 Is Justine going to doing the shopping?

3 Are Kath going to buy the tickets?

4 We’re not going to meet them after all.

5 The trains go to be late all day today.

6 Does he going to be late again?

7 Do we going to be in time?

8 My brother’s going to do the cooking.

9 I’ll going to phone them tomorrow.

10 Be Henry going to wash the car?

Dialogue 4

James rings Dave to change plans.

JAMES:

Hello Dave.

DAVE:

James! How’s things?

JAMES:

Fine. But listen, Dave – something’s come up, and I have to visit my family in Scotland. But I know we were going to get together tomorrow over lunch to discuss business, weren’t we?

DAVE:

Yes – do you want to put it off?

JAMES:

Would you mind?

DAVE:

No problem! How about later in the week?

JAMES:

Would Thursday fit in with you?

DAVE:

Thursday’s fine. I’ll put you down for twelve o’clock.

Language point 44 – more about

phrasal verbs

As we saw in Language point 20 in Unit 3, PHRASAL VERBS are an important and common feature of colloquial English. And we have to be careful when we use them with PRONOUNS.

In Dialogue 4 Dave says:

I’ll put you down for twelve o’clock

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and he puts the OBJECT pronoun you before the second part of the phrasal verb. He doesn’t say:

‘I’ll put down you for twelve o’clock’

When we use PRONOUNS as the objects of phrasal verbs, we must put them between the verb and the adverb. More examples: Please write it down for me

not

‘Please write down it for me’

The radio’s been on all day – why don’t you turn it off?

not

‘why don’t you switch off it?’

But with NOUN objects, we can put them either before or after the adverb:

Why don’t you turn the radio off?