CELTA Practice

International House Language Awareness Task

Language Awareness
1. Can I help you with that?
a. You are preparing to take your seat on a train. You see a woman struggling to lift a very
heavy bag, and you ask if you can help, Can I help you with that?
b. Set the context of: an individual requiring help in a way that a second person can provide
assistance, and provide the context of what is the that.
2. I wish hed asked me earlier.
a. Your friend invites you to their birthday party, but you have already made plans to see a
movie that day. You say to another friend of yours who is going to the party, I wish hed
asked me earlier.
b. Set the context of: an opportunity that you are unable to take because you have already
organised an event or plan.
3. Watch out!
a. You are standing on a train platform and you see a man standing near the edge of the
platform. You see the train approaching quickly, and you say to the man, Watch out!
b. Set the context: a potentially dangerous situation in which you are able to warn another of
the imminent danger.
Differences in Meaning
a) They might be there vs. b) They should be there.
Might describes possibility with an even chance (50%), whereas should describes
possibility or expectation with a good chance of the event occurring (80%)
a) I studied in France last year vs. b) I have studied in France.
Studied describes a past action or event in the past that has finished, and has no
relevance to the present, whereas the use of have studied describes an action in the
past that has relevance to the present (such as a conversation about France, Have you
ever been to France? I have studied in France.
a) I used to work full-time. vs. b) Im getting used to working full-time.
Used to describes an action that happened regularly in the past, but no longer happens,
whereas getting used to describes the process of this action becoming normal, or
someone becoming accustomed to an action.
a) The plane took off. vs. b) The business took off.
A plane taking offer refers to the action of the plane leaving the ground starting to fly,
whereas a business taking off refers to the process in which the business became
success or popular very fast.
a) Secluded vs. b) isolated
Secluded refers to something being hidden, sheltered or private, or not seen or visited
by many people, where isolated refers to something that is far away from other places,
things or people; remote.
a) Reckon vs. b) opinion
Reckon is a very informal way of saying to think, such as What do you think about
this, whereas an opinion is more formal and often based on credibility, such as,
Based on your experience, what is your opinion on this?.



Present
Present / Presente: I am here / Estoy aqu
Present perfect / Pretrito perfecto: I have eaten / He comido
Present progressive / Presente progresivo (not the standard name): I am eating / Estoy comiendo
Present perfect progressive / Pretrito perfecto progresivo (not the standard name): I have been
eating / He estado comiendo
Past
Simple Past / Pretrito (simple) or (Pretrito) Indefinido: I went / Fui
Past perfect / Pretrito anterior: I had comido / Hube comido
Past progressive / Pretrito "progresivo" or Indefinido "progresivo"(not the standard names): I was
eating / Estuve comiendo
Past perfect progressive / Pretrito anterior "progresivo" (not the standard names): I had been eating /
Hube estado comiendo
Future
Future simple / Futuro simple: I will eat / Comer
Future perfect / Futuro compuesto: I will have eaten / Habr comido
Future progressive/ Futuro "progresivo" (not the standard name): I will be eating / Estar comiendo
Future perfect progressive/ Futuro compuesto "progresivo" (not the standard name): I will have been
eating / Habr estado comiendo
Conditional
Conditional / condicional : I would eat / Comera
Conditional perfect / condicional compuesto: I would have eaten / Habra comido
Conditional progressive / condicional "progresivo" (not the standard name): I would be eating / Estara
comiendo
Conditional perfect progressive / condicional compuesto "progresivo" (not the standard name): I would
have been eating / Habra estado comiendo
Spanish has two past tenses, and although I wrote above that "preterite" = "pretrito", they are not
always used the same. To this list, we have to add the pretrito imperfecto (imperfect), which does
not exist in English:
Imperfecto (que no existe en ingls)
Pretrito Imperfecto: Coma (roughly, I was eating)
Pretrito pluscuamperfecto: haba comido (roughly, I had been eating)
Pretrito Imperfecto "progresivo" (not the standard name): Estaba comiendo (roughly, I was eating)
Pretrito pluscuamperfecto"progresivo" (not the standard name): Haba estado comiendo (roughly, I
had been eating)
These, of course, do not include the non-finite forms and the subjunctive ones.