Pronunciation: homographs

Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meaning and can be pronounced differently, e.g:

bow / bau/ = move your head or the top half fo your body forwards and downwards, as a sing or respect or to say goodbay.

bow / beu =   1 a weapon used for shooting arrow 2 a hair decoration made of ribbon

There are not very many words like this, but the common ones are sometimes mispronounced, and learning the correct pronunciation will avoid misunderstanding.

Grammar: Comparison

Modifiers with as...as...

- My sister's almost as tall as me almost as tall as I am.

- She's just as bossy now as when she was a child.

- Their house is nearly as big as yours.

- His latest movie isn't half as good as his previous one.

- Our new apartment is twice as big as our old one.

- The vacation cost three times as much as I'd expected.

We often use the modifiers almost, just, and nearly, and half, twice, three times, etc. with as...as...

• After as...as... we can either use a subject pronoun + auxiliary verb, or an object pronoun, e.g.. She drives as fast as I do OR She drives as fast as me.

     A Twice can only be used before as...as... NOT Our new apartment is twice bigger than our old one.

However three times, four times, etc. can be used with as... as... or with a comparative adjective or adverb, e.g., The vacation cost three times more than I'd expected.

modifiers with comparative adjectives or adverbs 

1. The play was much better than I'd expected.

He's driving a lot more carefully since he got points on his license.

The Hawaiian coffee is far more expensive than the Colombian one.

2. She earns much more money than I do.

Women today have many more opportunities than they used to.

3. She's a little better than she was yesterday.

The later train is slightly cheaper than the earlier one.

Could you two talk a bit more quietly, please? I'm trying to concentrate.

4. A Would you like some more coffee? B Just a little more, please.

We only have a few more minutes before the show starts.

5. The taxi driver drove faster and faster.

It's getting more and more difficult to make ends meet nowadays.

1. We use much, a lot or far + comparative adjective or adverb for a big difference.

2. When we use more + noun for big differences, we use much for a lot more + an uncountable noun and many far / a lot more + a plural countable noun.

3. We use slightly or a little + comparative adjective or adverb for a small difference.

4. When we use more + noun for small differences, we use a little slightly la little bit more + an uncountable noun and a few or slightly + a plural countable noun.

5. We sometimes repeat a comparative adjective or adverb for emphasis.

When the comparative is formed with more, the adjective / adverb is only used after the second more (NOT getting more difficult and more difficult).

modifiers with superlatives

It was by far the nicest of all the hotels we stayed at.

That was easily the best fish I've had in a long time.

I'm almost the oldest in my class.

• We often use by far easily, and nearly almost to modify superlative adjectives or adverbs.

the...the... + comparatives

The more dangerous a sport (is), the more exciting it is to watch.

The bigger the car (is), the more expensive it is to run.

The faster I speak in English, the more mistakes I make.

A When do you want me to do it? B The sooner the better.

We can use comparatives with the...the... to say that things change or vary together.

• When the verb in the first part is be, it can be left out, e.g., The more dangerous a sport (is), the more some people seem to be attracted to it.

• We often use more + noun in this structure, e.g., The more coffee you drink, the less well you sleep.

• When the second comparative is better, a reduced structure can be used, e.g., the bigger the better, etc. and also in set phrases like the more the merrier.

Vocabulary; word building: adjectives, nouns, and verbs.

ADJETIVES

Adjectives give us more information. They modify or describe features and qualities of people, animals and things.

NOUNS                                  

Are used to refer to people, animals, objects, events, places and abstract ideas. Nouns are not gendered.

VERBS

Verbs are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, adjectives and adverbs. A verb refers to an action, event or state.

Adjetive	Noun	Verb
Strong	Strength	strengthened
Long	length	Long
Deep	depth	Deepen
Short	Short	Shorten
Wide	Width	Widen
High	Height	Highten
Weak	Weakness	Weaken
Thick	Thickness	Thicken
Flat	Flat	Flatten

Possessive forms express the idea of "having" which exists between two nouns.

APOSTROPHE S

1. We normaly use a possessive (+ 's) when something belongs to a particular person or thing.

- a person
- an animal
- an organization
- a group of people
- or a place

• With places we can also say

- Sarongis one of the most famous restaurants in Bali

2. If a name (or singular noun) finishes in s, we either add 's, Chri's book, or put an apostrophe at the end of the word, Chris' book. 
With irregular plurals which dont end in s (people, children, men, etc.) we add 's

• If there are two people, we add the 's to the second name.

3. When 's refers to "the house of" or "the store of", we often omit the word house or store.

USIING OF  (instead of apostrophe s)

1. We normally use an of phrase, not 's, with thongs or abstract nouns, especially when one thing is part of another.

2. We use of  to express possession with a long phrase, 

3. With friend, we often say a friend of + name / noun +  's. 

COMPOUND NOUNS

1. We use compound nouns, not possessive forms, to refer to people or things in terms of what they are for, what they are made of, what work they do, or what kind they are. 

The second noun is the main thing or person, and can be singular or plural. The forst noun gives more information about the second noun. It is inusually singular, unless it has no singular from

Compound nouns are usually two separate words, but they are occasionally joined together as one word.

2. With containers, a compound noun (a milk bottle) focuses on the container (usually empty), whereas the container + a possessive noun (a bottle of milk) focuses on the contents ( the contaner is usually full).