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Present simple, make and do, the schwa AIRC1

PRESENT SIMPLE
Hola y bienvenido a aprender ingls con Reza y Craig.
C: Hello Reza,
R: Hi Craig, how is it going?
C: Pretty good, pretty good. I think first we should introduce ourselves.
R: Good idea.
C: So, my name is Craig, and Im an English teacher here at the British Council in Valencia, and Im originally
from London.
R: and my name is Reza, I also live in Valencia and work at the British Council, and I come from Belfast.
C: So lets begin with our first spot which is grammar focus. Reza over to you.
R: Craig, you live in Valencia, right?
C: I do.
R: Its famous for rice. They grow rice here and they eat it a lot, right? Do you like rice Craig?
C: I love rice, not all rice dishes, I dont really like arroz caldoso, arroz a banda, but I love paella, especially
with chicken.
R: Yeah. And can you cook any rice dishes?
C: I dont cook it, I just eat it.
R: Do you cook other things? I mean, how often do you cook anything at all?
C: Beans on toast sometimes, maybe Ill have something fried, or a sandwich.
R: But do you cook like every day or once a week?
C: No, only when I have to.
R: You dont really like household chores then, do you?
C: No, no I dont clean, I dont do anything in the house if I can help it.
R: And what about the washing up, do you always do the dishes?
C: No, I have a dishwasher.
R: On the rare occasions when you do cook Craig, do you usually make a mess when you cook?
C: Always. I make a mess when I cook, I make a mess when I make a salad, when I make a sandwich
R: So, you are a messy person right?
C: Im a messy person in the kitchen.
R: Like me!
C: You too?
R: Yeah. I really try to be tidy about the house, but I just cant keep things in order. Do you think is possible
for a person to change? I want to be tidier.
C: I dont know if we do change. I think maybe we can change our habits. Yeah, thats possible.
R: When I go to stay at my mums house, next Friday, Ill be tidy. She is very, very house-proud.
C: Your mum? What does house-proud mean?
R: House-proud? That means its very important for her to have her house looking neat, and tidy and clean.
It means a lot to her. Shes house-proud.
C: Because proud is orgulloso.
R: Thats right. House-proud: orgullosa de su casa.
C: Right. My mum is very house-proud as well.
C: Oh yeah! Ive seen your mums house, its spotless. So, as I say Craig, Im off to Ireland soon to visit my
house-proud mum.
C: Right. And shes not gonna let you make a mess in the house.
R: No, no way, no way. Ill do a bit of housework, you know, but generally she likes to do it. She just doesnt
trust me.
C: So, what do you call words like that, where house is one noun and proud is an adjective and they are
together, compound nouns?
R: Well house-proud will be a compound adjective.
C: Compound adjective?
R: Because its describing my mum. You can have a compound noun as well like football, everybodys heard
of football, everybody understands it, actually its a compound noun; you got the word foot, you got the word
ball. Stick them together and you got football. My mum is house-proud; house, proud, stick them together
and you got house proud.
Craig, have you noticed there that I asked you lots of questions about housework and what your mum is like,
and you were asking me what my mum is like, and things like that did you notice that most of the verbs
were present simple?
C: I did.
R: Do you know why?
C: Is it because there is something that people usually do like as a habit? Your mother, she is house-proud
on a regular basis, she does the cooking, she cleans the house, she does the shopping, so, when you speak
about things like habits, we use the present simple.
R: Exactly, thats one use of it I also said that Im a messy person and youre a messy person, thats a
characteristic, thats something that never changes. Its not a habit, its a state which will never change, thats
also present simple.
C: I see, and messy in Spanish is
R: messy?? Is mmm
C: lioso?
R: the opposite of tidy. So my mum is really tidy around the house, shes house-proud, Im the opposite, Im
messy, I dont care where I put things, and I never keep things in order, Im the opposite of tidy.
C: You make a mess. Haces un lo.
R: I make a mess, thats right. And I dont do much housework.
I told you Im going to stay in my mums house next Fridaydid you notice I said when I stay in my mums
house next Friday Ill be tidy. I said when I stay in my mums housethats a present simple. I stay, me
quedo. But the meaning is actually future, you can use the present simple as a future meaning if there is a
time with it like next Friday. When I stay in my mums house, next Friday. By the way, my flight to Ireland
leaves very early in the morning, Ill have to get up about 5 oclock.
C: Thats also present simple. My flight leaves
R: you spotted it, thats right! Its next Friday, its future, but its present simple, because its a timetable. A
timetable, you know, for buses, trains, schooltimetable, un horario.
C: So I can say my lesson starts at half past six.
R: Thats right, even if your lesson is in the future.
C: ok. Are there any other uses of present simple apart from habits and timetables?
R: ahh, habits, timetables, characteristicsI said you at the beginning I think that Valencia is famous for its
rice, they grow a lot of rice, they eat a lot of rice, its a characteristic of Valencia, characteristic. I also said my
mums house-proud, thats a characteristic of hers.
C: And as you said before, things that are always true. Water boils at..is it 32 degrees centigrade?
R: I dont know, hundred degrees centigrade, thats easier for me to remember!
C: Is it Fahrenheit?
R: No, centigrade!
C: When you heat water, it boils.
R: Thats it, always! Its always gonna happen, cant change. The sun rises in the East and sets on the West.
Always present simple. Rises, sets.

PRONUNCIATION
C: Ok! Moving on then to the pronunciation spot. So, I wanted to talk about the commonest sound in English.
How do you feel Reza when you wake up Monday morning and you think of work, what sound do you make?
R: / /
C: Close, with me is more like/ /. You wake up in the morning, you are thinking of work, or you are thinking
of your English lesson, and the sound you make is //. So thats the commonest sound in English, its called
the schwa. For example, un bolgrafo is // pen. Un libro is // book. Then there is moth //, sist//, broth//,
teach//, // comput//, and very often words like prepositions and articles in the middle of a sentence have
this sound //, which is a weak form, un sonido dbil.
R: Like /t/, when people say Im going to the shops, they say /t/.
C: Exactly!
C: Im going to the shops, in normal speech Im going / t / the shops. So you have /t/ and / d /, two
schwas. A cup of tea, so of // cup / f/ tea. No of but /f/.
R: So its always a weak sound then, the schwa, its never a strong sound.
C: Yeah! Its a sound without effort, sin esfuerzo, just //, // book, // cup of tea.
R: I heard Spanish people mispronounce schwa, because its almost like they make too much effort to
pronounce it, and it doesnt sound like a native speaker. They say /aaaaa/ cup-of-tea, instead of // cup
/f/tea.
C: Because they put equal stress in Spanish on each syllable. In English its stressed time, so we change
the stress on different syllables. Another one, /bn.n/. Have / bn.n/, no, have /ei ba-n-
n/. Have / bn.n/. Lots of schwas.
TIPS TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY
C: Reza have you got a hot tip for us this week?
R: Well Craig, we talked about a few topics today and we discovered some new vocabulary. As you know, it
can be hard to remember new words and expressions. You and I have had to learn Spanish, not easy.
C: Some of us still trying.
R: Yeah, me too!
C: Im still trying!
R: Its easy to learn a word and forget it in a few days, right? Well, when I was first learning new Spanish
vocabulary, I used to write sentences, but with a gap, a space, un hueco, I didnt write the complete
sentence. And the gap, the space, was the missing word or words, expressions, that I just learned and I
wanted to remember.
C: Well, we see those all the time in textbooks, and course books, on the Internet where you have a sentence
with a space that you have to write the missing word. Is this idea.
R: Right, exactly! So you can make up your own. Or you can copy a teachers or someone you heard if you
want, but make a copy of your own if you like. Let me give an example Craig, here today we were talking
about my mum, and how shes house-proud. Now imagine house-proud was a new word for me, ok? And I
wanted to remember in a few days what house-proud means. I might not hear it again, so its going to be
easy to forget it, right? So, what if I wrote down on a piece of paper, number 1: Rezas mum likes to clean
and tidy her house a lot, because she is very ______.
C: So the missing word is house-proud.
R: I write on another piece of paper or the other side of the same piece of the paper, but out of sight, 1.
house-proud, in an answer key. I can write as many sentences as I like. Here is another sentenceImagine
we wanted to remember the word messy, right?
C: I think of football. The Barcelona footballerLeonel Messi.
R: Leonel Messi. But Craig, Im talking about the adjective messy! We were talking about which means
untidy, quite the opposite of house-proud, we could write, both Craig and Reza dont tidy up much. They are
_____.
C: messy.
R: Thats the word!
Or, I could say: look at my desk! Its really _____.
R: messy.
C: Perfect.
R: So we write the word messy on the answer key, thats number two. You could write as many as you like,
three or four to remember, twenty if you got time. Then, leave them for a few daysthats the test, because
anyone can remember a word for a minute, a half an hour, an hourleave it for a few days, then come back
to it and test yourself. Thats a really good way to remember vocabulary. Its much better than just writing lists
of words. You need the context to remember.
C: Thats a wonderful idea. And also I suggest that you choose words that you like, because many of my
students write long lists of words, too many words. I say just choose six, or seven or eight words from a
lesson that you like, the words that you think youll use, words that you want to learn, not every single word,
just choose the ones you like.
R: Right.
C: messy is easy to remember, just remember the footballer.
R: yeah!

COLLOCATE WITH CRAIG

C: So now we are going to Collocate with Craig. Im going to give you some popular collocations, for
example, how do you say in English Reza, hacer, hacer la compra?
R: Oh Craig! I know thats a trick question, I know that one. It can be make or it can be do.
C: Thats the thing. Well, with the shopping its probably do the shopping. But the problem is hacer in English
is sometimes make and is sometimes do. So, one thing to remember, food and drink, you usually make.
You make a sandwich, you make a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, you make a cocktail, you make dinner,
breakfast and lunch, so food and drink you make. Business and money, which one is do, which one is
make?
R: Oh! Im not sure. A bit of both Craig. You can do business, you can make money is that right?
C: Thats it, you do business and make money. How much money do you make? Is an American English way
to say how much money do you earn? So in American English you use make when you ask about somebodys
salary. I make about three thousand a year.
Profit and loss. Speaking about money, what do you think? Make or do? Make a profit or do a profit?
R: Definitively, make.
C: Correct! Make a profit and make a loss. This year our company made a loss. They lost money. This year
we made a huge profit.
R: What about deal Craig? Make a deal or do a deal?
C: Make a deal. Make a deal with someone. How do you say that in Spanish? Hacer un trato?
R: Yeah.
C: Lets make a deal. Another thing to remember, when you physically create something, creas algo, like
you make a table, is usually make. If you make furniture you are creating the furniture, you make a table from
wood.
R: When you mean like there is a physical product at the end of it?
C: Correct! And finally, things in the house. Most things in the house you do, so you do the shopping, you
do the cleaning, you do the washing up, you do the ironingExcept, the thing that you make?
R: I do, make the bed.
C: something I never do in the morning is make the bed. So, one exception, I think the one exception, is to
make the bedeverything else in the house you do. Did you make the bed this morning?
R: I did, I always do.
C: Next episode well speak about more expressions with make and do.
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PHRASAL VERBS
C: Reza do you have a phrasal verb for us?
R: I do Craig. The phrasal verb for today is: take up.
C: Take up?
R: Take up. You know Craig, I have plenty of free time these days, I want to take up a hobby, any
suggestions?
C: Well, you could take up fishing, thats relaxing, do you feel stressed?
R: I do! Yeah!
C: Take up fishing.
R: Ok! So, take up a hobby means start, begin an activity that you havent done before. Thats take up. Craig
I have friends who make model planes and ships and things like that as a hobby. But I dont want to do that,
because I reckon that hobby takes up too much space and time. There is another use of take up. Making
models takes up too much space and time.
C: Entonces el mismo phrasal verb puede tener ms que un significado.
R: Oh yeah! Most phrasal verbs have more than one meaning. So we find take up, begin or start a hobby or
activity, or weve got take up space, take up time, making model planes takes up too much space and time.
It takes up, it uses, it occupies, thats another meaning of take up.
C: And I suppose if you take up golf, you have to buy the golf clubs, and a golf bag, which would take up a
lot of space in your flat, especially if like me you have a small flat.
R: Exactly! Thats it. So youve just used take up twice in the same sentence with two different meanings.
And they are both really common meanings, youll hear them all the time.
C: So is there anything you seriously considering taking up?
R: Im considering taking up cycling. It would keep me fit I hope.
C: Thats healthy, thats good idea. Especially in Valencia because is so flat.
But you know, maybe Ill have to just to wait a while because theres something else on my mind..you know,
very soon an electrician is coming right to my flat, to change the cables, the wiring, los cables. Im a bit
worried. Apart from taking up lots of time, do you think this electrician is going to take up the floor boards in
my house?
Uh! Thats a good question. It depends whether the original cables were under the floor. But he might have
to take off some of the plaster. Whats plaster in Spanish? I cant remember! Escayola! Yeah, to take off the
escayola. Take off the plaster from the walls to get to the wires. But take up the floor boards probably not, I
hope!
R: So Im glad to hear that. We got the word take up there, the phrasal verb means lift, remove something,
so hopefully the electrician doesnt have to take up, lift, remove, levantar my floor boards. But Craig says
he probably will have to take off some plaster, take off, quitar, remove, quitar la escayola. Take off the
plaster.
C: Well, I think may be weve taken up too much of our listeners time, possibly, a nice way to finish our first
episode, so thank you for listening, thank you to Reza, and we hope to see you in the next episode.