Dear sir or madam

1.Do you remember these words?

In this unit, we will deal with lexical areas and sentence linkers. Concerning writing, we are focusing on
writing a formal email. To finish, we will zoom in on sentence stress.

So, let’s read something you will probably understand easily:

I have always wanted to study at the university. Nobody in my family did it before, so it became a really
challenging opportunity. When studying at high levels, all of my mates were not sure about what to study.
The hot issue was the profession to do in the far future. As for me, I had a clear idea: studying
environmental sciences. I am not only passionate about nature but also an activist. Nonetheless, at that
moment, we were really short of time and, as a consequence, we enjoyed nature only at weekends, and
luckily on some bank holidays. When the staggering moment arrived, I was half afraid half-enthusiastic
due to the amount of changes which were coming. The clearest thing was I was going to succeed in every
obstacle I face in this way.

Podcast C1UMA01P01

GLOSSARY

High levels: the upper stage of studies or education.

Hot issue: subject getting a lot of attention.

Short of time: with a reduced quantity of available time.

staggering: very shocking and surprising.

2. Reading
Now, we will read a text which is a little more complex.

TYPES OF WORK
When talking about work, the first thing we think of is the type of contract we can have. To start, let’s see
different versions of contracts that we can find in the public administration. There are two versions of
contracts as a civil servant. One is that of interim with indefinite full-time, which will be a total of forty
hours per week. This type of contract is offered when, due to service needs, some staff is needed for a
certain job. The negative side is that once the necessity is finished, the contract comes to an end.

The next contract will be as a civil servant. To access to this position, the administration must offer the
posts to be covered in the budgets for that year, having a subsequent publication. An important advantage
that we must bear in mind is that once the person signs this position, this person will not be able to be
separated from the corresponding position, except for criminal proceedings or any judicial problem.

After all of the above, it has nothing to do with the employment contracts of a company or a self-employed
person. Today's self-employed have many difficulties to continue working and paying taxes due to the
fiscal pressure they are subjected to. As an example, we can say that a self-employed person, such as a
small grocery store, will have to contribute at least two hundred and fifty euros per month to social
security, plus electricity, water, rent, and other expenses that he may have.
Unlike self-employed, labor contracts can be classified as permanent or temporary, and the main
difference is that the temporary one is for a certain time, and the other will not have an end time. The
salary will be established by the different collective agreements. In this line, we can mention that the metal
agreement is different from the agreement that commercial workers may have.

In a nutshell, we can say that the current society is changing the work model, now the dream of many
young people is to be a civil servant, due to the stability they have in the future, and not to start a small
business or be self-employed.

3. Vocabulary: lexical areas

In this section of vocabulary, we are focusing on lexical areas. The term “lexical area” refers to
vocabulary related to a topic. It is made up of a set of lexical units. First, let’s see some vocabulary you
should know. We will divide the glossary into sections that refer to something really useful in lexical
areas: word-formation. When we know the different processes to form words, our vocabulary increases,
and that allows us to know and create words belonging to the same lexical area: noun suffixes,
adjectival suffixes, adverbial suffixes, negative prefixes, and degree prefixes.

GLOSSARY

Podcast C1UMA01P03

Noun suffixes
-HOOD: It is added to nouns to form abstract nouns: brotherhood, neighbourhood; it can also be added
to adjectives: falsehood, likelihood.
-SHIP: It is added to nouns (mainly names of persons) to form abstract nouns: friendship.

–DOM: It means “belonging to”: kingdom, Christendom.

–ER (-OR): It is added to form personal nouns. It is an extremely productive suffix potentially applicable
to any verb: worker, inspector, actor, drinker, teacher.
–ANT: Inhabitant, occupant.

–ATION: To form abstract nouns: operation, exploration, generation; or collective nouns: foundation.
–MENT: It forms abstract nouns: agreement, arrangement.

–AL: It forms nouns from verbs, mainly of French origin: approval, refusal.
–ING: It forms abstract nouns: living; and concrete nouns as well: pointing.
–AGE: It refers to mass abstract nouns expressing amount of collectivity: package; or condition: shortage.

Adjectival suffixes
–ABLE, -IBLE: Readable, drinkable.
–AL, -ICAL, -IAL: Chemical, criminal, special.
–FUL: Beautiful.
–ED: Blue-eyed.
–EN: Wooden.
 –IC: Heroic, Germanic, specific.
–ISH: It means “belonging to”: Swedish, Spanish; it can also mean ‘having the characteristic of’: foolish,
snobbish.

–LESS: It means “without”: penniless, helpless

–LIKE, -LY: It means “having the quality of”: ladylike, manly, friendly, childlike.

Adverbial suffixes
–LY: It forms adverbs of manner from adjectives and nouns: happily, freely, instantly.

–WARDS: It forms adverbs of manner or direction: backwards, towards, onwards.

–WISE: It forms adverb of manner: crabwise, clockwise.

Negative prefixes
UN-: It is the most common negative prefix. It is used with adjectives: unfair; adverbs: unfortunately,
unexpected; <-ed>/<-ing> participles used as adjectives: unwilling, unassuming.
NON-: It can be derived from a clause of negation, for instance: a non-smoker is someone who does not
smoke. It is added to adjectives: non-conformist; nouns of action: non-politician, non-aggression; a verb
stem: non-stop.
IN- (IL- before <l>, IM- before labials, IR- before <r>): insane, illegible, irrelevant, impolite, invisible,
illogical, impossible, irresponsible.

Degree prefixes
ARCH-: It means “supreme, highest or worst”. It is used before nouns: archenemy, archduke.
SUPER-: It means “above, more than, better” when added to nouns: supermarket. It can also be added
to adjectives and it means “beyond”: supernatural.
SUB-: It means “under” and “lower than”. It is usually used with adjectives: substandard.
OVER-: It means “too much”. For example, overcook.

UNDER-: It means “too little”. It is normally added to verbs: undercook.

HIPER-, ULTRA-: They mean “excessively, extremely”. They are used to form adjectives: ultramodern,
hypersensitive, and ultrasonic.
MINI-, MICRO-: They mean “little”. They are normally added to nouns: miniskirt, microwave.
MACRO-: It means “on a large scale”. It is normally added to nouns: macrocosm.

4. Grammar
In this section, we are going to study sentence linkers. We will zoom in on the coordinating,
subordinating, and adverbial linkers. These are really useful when it comes to learning a language, due
to the fact they enrich our vocabulary and improve our expression.
Coordinating conjunctions

Structure
We use coordinating conjunctions to join sentences and clauses with conjunctions. Type of conjunctions
normally link phrases of equal value, normally main clauses. Therefore, when we use this type of
conjunctions, we use “and,” “but” and “or” as common coordinators.

“And” expresses addition. For example: I turn on the oven and I put the turkey into.

“But” expresses contrast. For example: I turn on the oven, but I couldn’t put the turkey into.

“Or” expresses choice: For example: Do I turn on the oven or do you prefer to wait?

We always put the coordinators between two clauses. Let’s see this example:

I am not partying this afternoon. I am staying at home.

 I am not partying this afternoon and I am staying at home.

 And I am staying at home, I am not partying this afternoon.

Apart from the conjunctions mentioned above, when we want to emphasize that two things happened
or not, we use the so-called “two-part conjunctions”: neither…nor; either…or; not only…but also; and
both…and.

Let’s see some examples:

Marcos doesn’t like neither risky sports nor water ones.

Elisa and Maria are not only sisters but also best friends.

We can either visit Seville or Malaga.

Both Luis and Eva are coming to our wedding.

Use:

1. To link phrases of equal value. For instance: We can pay by credit card. We can pay in cash. 
We can pay by credit card or in cash.
2. To emphasize that two things happened.
3. To join sentences and express addition, choice or contrast.

Summing up
 To express
And
addition

To express a
But
contrast

To express a
Coordinating Or
choice
conjunctions
Neither...nor..
.

Not only...but
also...
Two part
conjunctions
Both...and...

Either...or...

Subordinating conjunctions

Structure:
We use subordinating conjunctions when linking sentences or clauses without the same value. In other
words, they are used to link the main clause and a subordinate clause. A subordinate clause always
starts with a subordinating conjunction, for example, although, when or if. These subordinate
conjunctions help us know the relationship between the main clause and the subordinate one.

Let’s now see the types of subordinating conjunctions:

CONCESSION

A concessive clause expresses an idea that suggests the opposite of the main part of the sentence. Some
concession linkers are: although, though, even though, in spite of, despite.

Let’s see some examples:

Although her parents are French, she does not speak any French at all.

The honeymoon will be in Maldives, even though there are such nice islands in the Mediterranean.

Though it was really cold, they could sleep deeply.

Despite the fact that she is ill, she will go to school and do the exam.

I will apologise my father, in spite of being such a stubborn person.

When it comes to despite and in spite of, we must be careful. If there is a clause after them, we need
the structure “the fact that”, as follows:

Despite her illness, she will go to the university.

Despite the fact that she is ill, she will go to university.

CONDITION

A conditional clause is used to talk about possible events in the future. Some condition linkers are: if,
whether, unless, providing that, provided that, supposing that.

Let’s see now some examples:

“If” is used as the most common condition linker. For example: It if rains, I will take my umbrella.

“Whether” and “if” can be used when we are talking about two possibilities, or when someone is not
sure about something. For example: My parents do not know whether to go to Barcelona or Madrid.

“Unless” is used with the meaning of “except if”. For instance: Unless I don’t pass the exam, my parents
will buy me a computer.

“Providing” and “provided” are similar in meaning and use. They mean “on condition that”. For example:
Provided/Providing that the weather is fine, we will go to the beach on Sunday.

“Supposing that” is used to introduce a possible situation or actions and its result. For example:
Supposing that you win the Christmas lottery, what would you use the money for?

TIME

A time clause connects an action or event to a point in time. Some time connectors are: when,
whenever, while, as soon as, before, after.

Let’s see some examples:

Call me when you are ready.

I have just finished. We can go whenever you want.

My sister was studying while we were eating.

I will call you as soon as I arrive home.

Before sending the email, check it.

We will go sightseeing after having lunch.

Uses:
1. We use subordinating conjunctions to link the main clause and a subordinate clause.
2. We use concessive conjunctions to express the opposite idea of the main part of the sentence.
3. We use the condition linkers to express or show the possibility of an action or event happening
in the future.
 4. We use time linkers to connect either an action or event with a point in time: future, past or
present.

Summing up

Although, though, even though,

Concession
despite, in spite of.

Subordinating if, whether, unless, providing that,

Condition
conjunctions provided that, supposing that.

when, whenever, while, as soon

Time
as, before, after.

Adverbials

Adverbials are used in a linking process to establish a relationship between two sentences rather than
two clauses within one sentence. An adverbial is usually located at the start of the second sentence,
followed by a comma, separating it from the sentence. The relationships adverbials can express are
several, like time, contrast, cause, etc.

Some adverbials are the following:

Time: after that, hardly, no sooner, while, when.

Contrast: Nevertheless, nonetheless, however,
Cause: for this reason, since, because, as.
Manner: as, like.
Comparison: as….as, more…than, less…than.

Let’s see some examples:

My father had no sooner started to cook when the light went off.
We weren’t hungry. However, we stopped at that restaurant because of its references.
I do not like crowded places. For this reason, I always travel to isolated sites.
Maria usually listens to pop music, like her older sister.
This chemistry exercise is as difficult as the previous one.

In this point, it is crucial to clarify that adverbials embrace the linkers mentioned above and others. That
means an adverbial refers to the whole sentence starting with X linkers, being X either cause, purpose,
time, or other expressions.
Summing up

Time , contrast, cause,

Establish a relationship
Adverbials manner, comparison,
between two sentences
and so on.

5.Listening
You will hear two people talking about their lives and experiences. In the first one, the speaker talks
about social networks and business and gives his opinion about how they can improve our business
perspectives. In the second one, the speaker tells us how cyberattacks are invading our lives and
provides some recommendations and tips to avoid this kind of experience.

After you listen to the recordings, you will find some questions to test your comprehension skills.

5.1 Listening 1: Social networks and business.

Transcript:
In these times, it is very difficult to set up a small business, due to the uncertainty that the world situation
gives us. And what to say about the taxes we have to pay in our country. I have been living in the UK and
self-employed pay fifty euros per month there, whereas in Spain the fee is two hundred and fifty, bills
apart.

One of the advantages of creating our own company is we have no bosses; nobody controls us, there is no
external pressure or negative factors coming from colleagues. Nowadays, emerging media and webs are
of great interest to promote our business. There are many pages where we can advertise our company for
free.
We have a clear example on the international Tripadvisor website, which not only can advertise our
accommodation possibilities but also improve our position on the web, because users who visit different
places will be able to give their personal opinion of the offered services.

My recommendation is that if you want to promote your business today, you cannot be stuck in traditional
advertising. We need a greater impulse to enter the market, and this opportunity is provided by social
networks, but we have to keep in mind which social network to advertise.

I am giving some examples below, and depending on the characteristics of our business, I recommend to
choose one or another. We will start by mentioning the social network Facebook which is the one that our
business should have because we will be able to interact with our clients, and we will reach a much more
public than with traditional media.

Another network to take into account is LinkedIn, which is considered to be a job network. This means that
you can connect with other companies or professionals that you need at any given time.

Finally, we can highlight Instagram, which is considered one of the most important platforms when it
comes to uploading photographs or simply updates or stories about your business.

As you can appreciate, we have plenty of options to make our business famous.
5.2 Listening 2: Cyberattack.
Transcript:
We live in the 21st century, which is considered a century of digitization worldwide, and in my opinion,
logically, every area of the world with more or less evolution. This evolution is so great and quick that
experts comment we are living the fourth revolution.

With all these advances, some of them unthinkable years ago, the pros and cons of this evolution emerge.
One of the problems of the new era of digitization are the unsafety to which all internet users are exposed
as citizens or countries.

Only Spain receives more than 4,000 cyberattacks a day, and we are the third country in the world with
the highest number of cyberattacks, followed by the United States and the United Kingdom.

These attacks are being considered cyber-terrorism by different countries of the world since many of these
attacks are being directed at very sensitive infrastructures and facilities for the country. The problem is not
only the breakage of the machines, but the danger that is created for the population of the country and
the whole continent. We are no longer talking about economic damages but about many human lives'
dangers.

Criminal organizations are said to be related to cybercrime due to the fact that the infrastructures are
more affordable. A common practice is the theft of personal data and the subsequent use of this data
either for profit purposes such as card passwords, intimate photos, or directly request a reward for
recovering them. There are many examples of this type of crime, such as hacking, software infections,
identity theft, and many other cyber-extortions.

My recommendation is that we have to stop here, to reflect, since we cannot forget that this type of crime
is not only carried out by common criminals with only one individual or specialized groups but by countries
as well.

6. Writing: a formal email.

Nowadays, formal emails are significant in our daily life and a common type of writing, above all, at
work. We use them to establish contact with someone to fulfill our purpose. There are different formal
emails: emails for complaints, emails for asking for/giving information, emails of request, emails of
application for a job, and so on. In this section, we will learn how to write them.

What is a formal email?

A formal email is a text where we formally expose our objective and purpose since the addressee is not
a person we directly know or just because of formality. For example, we can understand who our
enterprise's bosses are, but our relationship is always formal, whether by mail or in person.

Structure

Organizing our formal email in several sections is essential to give the addressee clear and well-
structured information. Thus, as in most formal writings, we should write a title, which in emails we
normally write in the section of “Subject”. After the title, the structure would consist of:

1. Greeting 🡪 We should start with a short salutation. We normally write Mr. or Mrs and the surname if
we know the addressee. For example: Dear Mr. Watson. But, if we do not know the person we are
writing to, we use Dear Sir/Madam. It is essential to clarify that we do not use the colon (:), but a
comma (,) after these greetings in English.

2. Introduction 🡪 We should try to write a remarkable and concise introduction about the topic we are
asking for, the object and purpose of our writing. After the introduction, we would start building our
body, that is, the arguments and exposition of why we are typing.

3. Body 🡪In it, we expose the arguments and explain our objective and purposes.

4. Conclusion 🡪 In this point, we conclude with our main objective, summarising it and informing the
addressee of our availability and willingness. We sum up the topic or express our wish for something to
be done.

5. Farewell 🡪 This is the last point. Here there exist two options of the closing related directly to the
greeting. If we know the addressee, we close with “Yours sincerely”, but if we do not know the person,
we close with “Yours faithfully”. After this short farewell, it is widespread to sign the document with full
name.

Language

You should try not to use very colloquial or informal language by avoiding slang, idioms, and
contractions. The use of phrasal verbs is not required in a formal text, so you should substitute them
with formal or neutral words. It is prevalent to use passives.

We are expected to use a formal vocabulary in terms of language, so it is necessary to express ourselves
with words and expressions adapted to the context. Regarding connectors, linkers, phrases and
sentences are required to establish relationships between paragraphs.

In the following mind map, the main points above are summarized:

Greeting
Introduction
Body
Conclusion
Farewell
Application for a
job Neutral/formal
Complaints language
Requests

FORMAL
EMAIL

An example of a formal email could be the following:

GREETING

Dear Mr. Pérez,

INTRODUCTION

I am writing you to communicate I would like to have a meeting with you, in case it is possible, to talk
about my salary and my post in the enterprise.

BODY

As you know, I have been working in the enterprise for five years, and I am pleased with it. During these
five years, I have worked hard and learned a lot about all the company procedures and activities. But, of
course, we all know the company incomes have increased, and I think this is due to all the employees’
work, including, of course, the top leadership.

I am keen on this enterprise, and I would like to continue working. But in my honest opinion, the
responsibility I have at work is undervalued in terms of money. I would really like a salary increase. If it
were necessary to give me more duties, I would deal with them.

CONCLUSION

Regarding what I explained above, I would like to have a meeting with you. I am available at any time.
Thank you in advance for considering my application and for taking the time to solve my email.

FAREWELL

Yours sincerely,

Antonio Alfaro.

7.Speaking

7.1Pronunciation
In this section, we will deal with the sentence stress. You will listen to some words to practice your
pronunciation. We have to pronounce them correctly to avoid confusion.

Definition of stress

Stress concerns to the relative prominence of a syllable, word or phrase with respect to other syllable,
word or phrase in the discourse. For example, inter'national, did you 'take them?
It is important not to confuse stress with loudness, although conceding that loudness and articulatory
force are often factors, as are the duration and pitch. In English the difference between stressed and
unstressed syllables is much stronger than in some other languages.
Degrees of stress
Although it is convenient to think in terms of stress or non-stress, in fact, the English language has four or
five degrees of stress, which can be distinguished by a greater or lesser degree of difficulty.
Throughout this section, we will mark stress with a high vertical stroke before the syllable carrying the
stress, leaving lack of stress unmarked.
Position of stress
Stresses are usually in a fixed position in a word, though this position is variable unlike most languages:

First syllable 'precept

Second syllable to'night

Third syllable engi'neer

Fourth syllable misunder'stood

Fifth syllable palatali'zation

The sentences we are going to hear in the following recording are the following:

Sentences with marked stress:

He was dancing WELL to’night, WASN’T he!!

FINally we de’cided not to GO

I’ll see him if he COMES!

That’s GREAT!

He’s a complete I´DIOT!!

7.2Situation
In this section, we will see how to keep a conversation between a customer and the responsibility of the
enterprise. This will help us practice the vocabulary about a specific lexical area we have dealt with
before. When you finish this speaking section, you will be able to have a formal conversation at an
enterprise.

Transcript: R-Responsible; C- customer

R: Good afternoon, Sir. How could I help you?

C: Good afternoon, my name is Mark.

R: Ok, have a sit Mark, please.

C: Right. Well, I am here since I have recently bought a hard disk at your enterprise. To be more specific, I
bought it ten days ago. The problem is that when I unpacked the box, and I tried the hard disk just to
check, it didn’t work.

R: Oh, I feel really sorry about that. May I have your shipping confirmation and the bill?

C: Here you are. I have sent you two emails. One of them, last Wednesday, and another one yesterday,
which was Monday. Yes, Monday, because today is Tuesday.
R: Yes, now I am thinking I remember your problem. These days we are extremely busy at the enterprise,
and it is pretty difficult to reply all the emails we receive in a day. I really apologize for it.

C: Don’t worry. I just want a solution. I urgently need a hard disk. I work for Big Data, and it's one of my
workmates.

R: I understand. Well, I have checked the hard disk, and it is defective. As you have one month to return it
if any problem arises, you are in time. Take another one, and we make the change. I really regret the
situation.

C: Don’t worry. I’ll take a similar one. Thanks for your attention and attendance.

8. Key ideas
When learning a language, it is not enough to be focused on grammar. We need to be focused on
different skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening, and into these skills there are other subsections
which are relevant to be studied. These are pronunciation or orthographic rules.

Let’s see a summary of what you have learned in this unit:

● The first skill we have studied has been reading. By reading a text, you acquire new vocabulary.
In this reading, we have dealt with vocabulary related to work conditions and type of contracts,
a vast field which is constantly changing and new words are entering into this subject. This
helps us learn more complex vocabulary and structure.
● In this unit, we have learned vocabulary related to lexical areas. It is of great importance to
know the family of words, where words come from, and how we can form new words. This
way, you will enrich your vocabulary and be able to distinguish the type of word when you are
facing new vocabulary.
● Linking sentences is relevant when producing a text, both orally or written. In English, as in
other languages, we count on a wide range of linkers. It is really hard to use them all, but, as we
have learned in this unit if you know several connectors of a group, you will connect ideas and
sequences naturally.
● In this unit, we have listened to a person talking about social media and business and how a
good connection and use of both can improve our lifestyle. We have listened as well to a
person talking about a cyberattack, giving useful vocabulary and knowledge about this current
issue.
● In this unit, we have learned to write a formal email which might be useful for us if we have to
contact any enterprise, organization, or just a person with whom our relationship is quite
formal. Likewise, we have studied the different expressions used in formal emails.
● This unit focused on sentence stress, and we have also seen a dialogue between a responsible
organization and a customer. Speaking situations is helpful for conversation and practice; it
helps us improve our oral skills.

9. Links of interest
Today, we can access a lot of resources to study a language. We can use online platforms or mobile apps
as a tool to learn English. You can improve your comprehension skills by listening to the radio online, as
well as you can read online newspapers or podcasts, you can find useful information easily or watch
films in English. That’s why we have created this section for you to keep on learning English. This section
consists of helpful links to help you with your English.
● In this video, you can check your knowledge in word-formation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRNEUPXlObY
● Practice the usage of linkers in the following link https://youtu.be/nX8N9RiGCZg
● Here you can see and listen to a conversation between a customer and a salesman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKyJojb4Rxs
● In this link, you can learn more about a formal email and practise more
https://youtu.be/w9ddKTChI78