Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

– Like me!

Terry’s a long-distance lorry driver

– Me too!

My brother’s an accountant

– Same here!

Gerry’s going to Spain this summer

– So am I!

The first three responses can be used in all situations; but be careful with So am I!– it can only be used in answer to a statement using the verb be(on its own or in conjunction with another verb, as in the last example above).

Dialogue 12

Now Ann introduces Marian to Rosemary.

ANN:

Rosemary, this is Marian – she’s from Brighton.

ROSEMARY:

Hello, Marian – what do you do for a job?

MARIAN:

I’m a teacher.

ROSEMARY:

So am I! Where do you teach?

MARIAN:

In the college here. What about you?

ROSEMARY:

I teach in a primary school.

Language point 9 – ‘a’/‘an’ and ‘the’

In Dialogue 9, Rosemary says I teach in a primary school– she uses the INDEFINITE ARTICLE with the noun because it is the first time it has appeared in the conversation. This is why we use the indefinite article when we say what someone’s job is:

I’m a doctor

Suzi’s a teacher

James is an airline pilot

she’s a nurse

he’s a footballer

Paul’s a university lecturer

16

Jeremy’s a poet

Harold’s an estate agent

Jane’s an orthodontist

Mike’s a surgeon

Fiona’s an archaeologist

The indefinite article has two forms: aand an– you can tell which one to use by the sound of the word that follows:

• if the following word begins with a CONSONANT sound, we use a

•if the following word begins with a VOWEL sound, we use an

Remember that it is the sound that is important, not the spelling.

In the list above you can see that Paul is a university lecturer– the word universitybegins with a vowel in writing, but the first sound of the word is /j/, which is a consonant sound, so ais correct here.

Pronunciation

Many very commonly used words in English have both STRONG and WEAK pronunciations. In normal speech we use the weak pronunciation of these words, unless we want to emphasise them for some reason.

The weak pronunciations of the indefinite article are /ə/ and

/ən/ – make sure you use these when you are speaking! We will meet a lot more weak pronunciations in Unit 2 (Language point 13).

Exercise 6

Look at these people’s jobs – complete these sentences using a or an.

1 John’s ___ doctor.

2 Fiona’s ___ nurse.

3 My sister’s ___ university student.

4 My father’s ___ pilot.

5 Dave’s ___ architect.

6 Simon’s ___ writer.

7 Suzie’s ___ optician.

8 My father’s ___ airline pilot.

9 Kath’s ___ psychologist.

10 Roger’s ___ assistant librarian.

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Exercise 7

Listen to the audio of people telling you their names and their jobs, then fill in the information.

1 Pete

–

lawyer

2 ____

–

architect

3 James

–

______

4 Helen

–

______

5 Susan

–

______

6 _____

–

taxi driver

7 _____

–

actor

8 _____

–

farmer

9 Henry

–

______

10 Lisa

–

______

We use the DEFINITE ARTICLE thewhen talking about something that has already been mentioned, or that we know about anyway: James is taking a taxi to the airport

Tom works in an office in the city

We already know about the airport, and about the city, but not about the taxi or the office – these are ‘new information’.

old information

–

‘the’

new information

–

‘a’/‘an’

We also use a/ anto talk about one thing out of many , and theto talk about a unique thing :

The sun is a star

(There is only one sun, but there are many stars) This is a large room, but that is the largest room in the hotel(There are many large rooms in the hotel, but only one of them can be the largest)

Be careful!The definite article theis used with both singular

 and plural nouns, but the indefinite article is only used with singular nouns.

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Pronunciation

Theis pronounced /ðə/ before CONSONANT sounds, but /ð/ before VOWEL sounds:

the nurse

/ðə ns/

the architect

/ð `ɑktεkt/

the university

/ðə jun`vsti/

the hour

/ð `ɑuwə/

Exercise 8

Complete these sentences using a/ anor the.Don’t worry if you don’t completely understand the sentences – concentrate on the types of nouns.

1 Please could you tell me where ___ bank is?

2 We’re going to ___ cinema after lunch.

3 ___ streets in ___ town centre are flooded.

4 We’re staying in ___ large room on ___ fifth floor.

5 You need ___ telescope to see ___ Moon in detail.

6 Would you like ___ cup of tea?

7 What’s ___ weather like today?

8 Have you got ___ ten-pound note I could borrow?

9 Paris is ___ capital of France.

10 ___ Russian Federation is ___ very large country.

Dialogue 13

Vicki’s leaving early, but she doesn’t forget to say goodbye to Helen, Jenny, Stuart and Rosemary.

VICKI:

I’m off now – bye, everybody!

HELEN:

Bye, Vicki!

JENNY:

Bye, Vicki – see you tomorrow!

STUART:

See you, Vicki!

ROSEMARY:

Bye, Vicki!

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Language point 10 – saying goodbye

You may have noticed that none of the speakers in Dialogue 13

actually said Goodbye– in colloquial English this phrase is usually shortened to Bye. It is always okay to use this when you are leaving someone and want to say goodbye.

We can also use the phrase Bye bye, particularly when talking to little children.

Another very common phrase is See you!– you can say just this, or, if you know when you’ll see the person again, you can add a time phrase like tomorrow, on Fridayor next week. In normal speech See youis usually pronounced / `si:jə/ – make sure you use this pronunciation when you’re speaking. If you don’t know when you’ll next see the person, you can also say See you roundor See you around– nobody in Dialogue 13 says this, because they all expect to see Vicki tomorrow.

2 Where are