Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

The waiter’s brought you a chicken biryani!

– Of course he has – that’s what I ordered!

Why have you bought forty bottles of beer?

– Because that’s how many we need for the party tonight!

I always have a hot bath in the evening because that’s when I need to relax

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Exercise 6

Use that’s+ WH-WORD to complete the sentences, as above.

1

I’ve asked James to do it for me because _________

I trust.

2

I know Brighton very well because _________ I live.

3

Don’t call after ten because ________ the kids go to bed.

4

Tom always does the cooking because _______ he likes doing best.

5

Adam’s a keen swordsman because ________ he relaxes.

6

I hope this room holds thirty people, because ________

I’ve invited.

7

Lightning struck our house last night, and _______ we haven’t got a roof.

8

I know Liam likes the music shop, because _________

he spends all his money.

Dialogue 3

Stuart is looking for Terry – he asks Helen where he is.

STUART:

Where’s Terry? I haven’t seen him since this morning.

HELEN:

I don’t know. Who cares, anyway? His coat’s not on his chair – he must have gone home.

[ Stuart looks out of the window ]

STUART:

He can’t have left work – his car’s still in the car park.

I wonder where he is.

HELEN:

I suppose he may have gone to a meeting.

STUART:

He didn’t tell me he was going to a meeting . . .

[ Stuart turns to Vicki ] . . . Vicki, did Terry say he had a meeting this afternoon?

VICKI:

Not to me, he didn’t. I don’t care, anyway.

[ Terry walks in ]

STUART:

Terry! There you are!

TERRY:

What’s up?

STUART:

We were just wondering where you’d got to.

HELEN:

You mean you were just wondering where he’d got to, Stuart. The rest of us couldn’t care less.

TERRY:

Well, you needn’t have worried – I’m back.

VICKI:

Hooray.

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Idioms

• I don’t caremeans ‘It’s unimportant to me’ or ‘It doesn’t matter to me’

• What’s up?means ‘What’s the problem?’ or ‘What’s the matter?’

• I couldn’t care lessmeans ‘I don’t care at all’ or ‘It’s completely unimportant to me’

• where he’d got tomeans ‘where he’d gone’

Language point 88 – ‘may have’,

‘needn’t have’

In Language point 73 we met can’t havewith the PAST PARTICIPLE, and in Dialogue 3 in this unit Stuart uses it when he says about Terry:

He can’t have left work

=

It isn’t possible that he’s left work.

Go back and review Language point 73 now if you need to.

Then Helen uses may have+ past participle: He may have gone to a meeting

=

It’s possible that he’s gone to a meeting

So:

+

may have+ past participle

(possible)

––

can’t have+ past participle

(not possible)

Pronunciation

may have/`mεijəv/ can’t have/`kɑntəv/

Here are some more examples, in + and – pairs:

+

Dave may have phoned earlier

–

Dave can’t have phoned earlier

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+

You may have misunderstood me

–

You can’t have misunderstood me

+

We may have missed the bus

–

We can’t have missed the bus

Remember (from Language point 73) that we don’t use canfor possibility in English (even though we do use can’tfor impossibility !): We may have missed the bus

not

‘We can have missed the bus’

At the end of the Dialogue, Terry uses another expression: needn’t have/`nidntəv/ with the past participle:

You needn’t have worried

=

‘It wasn’t necessary for you to worry’

More examples:

She needn’t have spoken to you like that

You needn’t have come into work so early

Your sister needn’t have felt embarrassed

Exercise 7

Decide between may have, can’t haveand needn’t haveto complete the sentences.

1

We _________ brought the umbrella – it’s not going to rain.

2

Brenda’s very late – the bad weather _________ delayed her.

3

You ___________ got up early this morning – it’s the weekend!

4

They __________ gone out – the lights are on in the house.

5

I think we ________ paid too much for our TV – they’re cheaper here.

6

James looks awfully ill – I think he __________ caught a cold.

7

He ________ caught a cold – he’s only just come back from Barbados!

8

Sylvia hasn’t phoned – she _________ got home yet.

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Language point 89 – ‘wonder’ and

‘suppose’

When Stuart says in Dialogue 3:

I wonder where she is

he means that he is thinking about the question but doesn’t know the answer. I wonder/`wndər/ is used with WH-WORDS (and ifas well) – we don’t normally use it with any of the other pronouns, or with nouns. Here are some more examples:

I wonder what the time is

I wonder who that woman is

I wonder when they’ll arrive

I wonder how much they’re going to pay us

Particularly when we use it with if, I wonderinvites the other person to offer an opinion:

I wonder if Kath and Shamira will be at the party.

– I don’t know, perhaps they will.

I wonder if Adrian’s missed the train.

– Could be, he’s very late.

We can use wonderwith the other pronouns, and with nouns, in the PAST SIMPLE and PAST CONTINUOUS:

We were wondering where you’d got to

=

‘We didn’t know where you were (and we were thinking about it)’

James wondered what to do

=

‘James wasn’t sure what to do’

Suppose/ sə`pəυz/ is another verb that we normally use only with I– when Helen says:

I suppose he may have gone to a meeting

she means ‘I think it’s possible that he’s gone to a meeting’.

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Or it can mean something stronger:

I suppose you’ve come to collect the money

=

‘I assume that you’ve come to collect the money’

I supposeis not used in other tenses very often.

Exercise 8

Decide between the verbs in brackets to complete each sentence.

1

I (suppose/wonder) where James is.