Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

not

‘What else books do you want to buy?’

And it is wrong to use elsewith nouns: The other books

not

‘The books else’

Shall we have another drink?

not

‘Shall we have a drink else?’

Exercise 6

Decide which of these sentences are correct, and which are wrong.

Correct the wrong ones.

1 What else food shall we buy?

2 The people else will be here later.

3 Where are the others?

4 Who else is coming tonight?

5 Where other place would you like to go?

6 Can I have an else cream cake?

7 I like this coat, but the else one’s better.

8 I know you, but I don’t know anybody else here.

9 I need another cup of tea.

10 Would you like anything other, or is that all?

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Dialogue 6

Shamira is grumbling to Kath.

SHAMIRA: Every time we come

here we have to

wait!

KATH:

Never mind – it

won’t be long now.

SHAMIRA: We’ve been here the

whole morning,

practically.

KATH:

[ looks at her watch ] Well . . . we’ve only been here twenty minutes, actually.

SHAMIRA: It’s really annoying, and I’m fed up!

KATH:

It’s no use being annoyed, Shamira. Either we can wait here and be patient, or we can come back later.

SHAMIRA: Why does everyone else decide to come here just when I want to?

KATH:

Calm down. All the assistants are busy, but . . .

SHAMIRA: You mean ‘both the assistants’! There are only two of them! They should employ more assistants so people don’t have to wait.

KATH:

Look, we’re in town all day today – let’s come back when they’re not so rushed off their feet.

SHAMIRA: I’m not budging!

Idioms

• practicallymeans ‘almost’ or ‘nearly’

• We sometimes use actuallyto correct what someone else has said: Suzie’s eighteen.

– She’s nineteen, actually.

Are you looking for ward to the party?

– Actually I’m not coming.

• rushed off their feetmeans ‘very busy’

• I’m not budgingmeans ‘I’m not moving from here’ or ‘I’m staying right where I am’

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Language point 52 – ‘annoyed’ and

‘annoying’

Shamira says:

It’s really annoying!

and Kath tells her:

It’s no use being annoyed

In English we have -ingand -edadjectives formed from verbs – it is important to know the difference in meaning between them.

Shamira calls the situation annoying, while Kath talks about Shamira being annoyed. So:

cause of situation:

-ing

person affected by situation:

-ed

Let’s look at some more pairs of examples:

Kath is interestedin her magazine

because her magazine is interesting

Brenda is stuck in traffic – she’s annoyed

because being in a traffic jam is annoying

When something surprisinghappens

everyone is surprised

When we see an amazingfilm

we are amazed

Be careful!The -ingadjectives can come either after the verb

 be or before the noun:

This book is interesting

This is an interesting book

but the -edadjectives don’t usually come before the noun: This person is annoyed

but not

‘This is an annoyed person’

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Exercise 7

Choose the correct word from the brackets for each sentence.

1 Gerry’s (disappointed/disappointing) that the game’s cancelled.

2 Are you (interested/interesting) in tropical fish?

3 Andy gets very (excited/exciting) when he plays computer games.

4 It’s really (annoyed/annoying) to miss the bus.

5 We want to have an (excited/exciting) holiday in New Zealand.

6 This long heavy book is very (bored/boring).

7 Suzie gets rather (annoyed/annoying) when the kids are noisy.

8 Turn the TV off! I’m (bored/boring) with this programme!

9 It’s very (relaxed/relaxing) to sit in a bath at the end of the day.

10 I’m (surprised/surprising) to hear your news.

Exercise 8

Complete the sentences using the words from the box. You’ll need to use each word twice , and you’ll have to decide whether it should end in -edor -ing.

1 Janet’s very ________ with her poor exam results.

2 I really don’t like my job – it’s dull and _____ .

3 It’s ____________ that I can’t come your birthday party.

4 This book is very ________ – I think you’ll enjoy it.

5 I’m very _______ because I’ve got nothing to do.

6 The noise from your bedroom is very __________ – I can’t work!

7 It’s raining hard, so it’s ___________ that so many people are here.

8 Is Tim ____________ in large boats?

9 Are you ____________ at Brian’s good performance today?

10 I’m very __________ that the bus is late again!

annoydisappoint

bore

interest

surprise

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Phrasal verbs

calm down– ‘become calm’. When we tell someone to calm down, we want them stop being nervous or agitated, and to relax.

fed up– when you are fed up, you are unhappy about something, or bored with something, or rather angry about something. I’m fed up with this homeworkmeans ‘I’ve had enough of this homework’ or ‘I don’t want to do this homework any more’.

hold on– ‘wait’; hang onmeans the same thing.

put off– we saw this phrasal verb in Unit 6, meaning ‘postpone’; but it has another meaning: when we put someone off doing something, we discourage them from doing it – we convince them that they shouldn’t do it.

run out (of)– when we run out of something, we use the last of it and we haven’t got any left. Notice that we can say either We’ve run out of milk or The milk’s run out– both mean that there’s no milk left.

Life and living – sport

If you don’t want to have to visit the doctor like the people at the start of this unit, you need to keep fit – and a good way to do that is to play sport! The British take their sport very seriously, and there are two games that have a special place in their hearts. Football is regarded asthe national game, at least in England and Scotland, and is played at all levels, both professionallyand among amateurs, every weekend from autumn to spring. The best football clubs attract thousands of supporters and spectatorsto the groundsto watch the action. Millions more watch the matches liveon television, either at home or on large screens in pubs. Many football fanshave a particular club that they support – ask them What team do you support?and they’ll tell you. They might even be wearing their team’s strip, in which case you probably won’t need to ask!