Trabajo y estudios - prueba escrita

Following the link you can access a file with a bundle of useful resources for your writing assessment, focus on the working life topic.

Mi deporte favorito: el fútbol

¡Hola! Me llamo Berge, tengo catorce años y como a la mayoría de los chicos de catorce años, me encanta fútbol porque es guay.  

Mi deporte favorito es el fútbol porque es genial. Últimamente juego al fútbol dos veces a la semana en un club, pero también juego al fútbol en mi tiempo libre. Anteayer vi un partido de fútbol, Suwon Bluewings contra Manchester United.  Suwon ganó el partido. Cuando sea más vejo, me gustaría jugar para Suwon Bluewings. ¡Sería asombroso! En el futuro quiero visitar también Corea y me gustaría jugar al fútbol con Jong Tae-se. Me encanta Jong Tae-se porque es cuando era más joven, le escribía cartas y mandaba correos electrónicos, y él me respondió. En el futuro voy al ver jugar a Jong Tae-se ¡Será estupendo! Cuando estábamos en Corea conocimos a muchos futbolistas.

Normalmente juego en un equipo de fútbol y entrenamos en el polideportivo dos veces a la semana. No me gusta mucho el polideportivo porque es un poco cutre. La próxima semana, jugaré un partido de semifinales. ¡Ojalá ganemos! Solía jugar en un equipo de fútbol diferente peor que mi nuevo equipo. A mis amigos también les encantan nuestro equipo. Me parece que a la mayoría de la gente les gusta jugar al fútbol. 

Me encanta el fútbol aunque nunca juego a otro deporte. Por un lado es genial porque me puedo concentrar en el fútbol pero otro lado es fácil. ¿Importa? ¡No! Lo que más me gusta del fútbol es que es rápido pero lo que menos me gusta de deporte es repetitivo. Para disfrutar realmente del fútbol debes ser buenísimo en fútbol. ¡Adiós Amigos!

Berge Schembri

Crónica de la guerra europea 1914-1918

Spain and the Hispano-American countries were neutral during the Great War, but the first big novel about it was by an Spaniard: Vicente Blasco Ibañez. It was an instant world wide best seller, first published in 1916 and translated into English in 1919. His novel was translated into many languages and had two film adaptations. If you want to know more...

Speaking exam

In this link you can find a model exam. It lasts about 6 minutes, but is still a low C. Can you tell me why?

11B2 GCSE Spanish - controlled speaking 1 - possible questions

11B2 GCSE Spanish - controlled speaking 1

 

MIS VACACIONES

                                                           


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B75vMKNNXK7jZkZWbU5zRWpYNW8/view?usp=sharing

La tílde

Written accents (tildes) 

Overview - text from SpanishDict - do some online practice here

What are all those little "accents" for? Tildes (written accent marks) let the reader know where to place the intonation when a rule is broken. Without the tilde, we would just have to guess like we do in English:
I love that record vs. He loves to record music.

When to Use an Accent

There are lots of heteronyms like record in English and the rules for pronunciation are a little vague. But not in Spanish! Knowing the four categories of words makes positioning the tilde super easy. There are only 2 rules if you already know your word stress rules.

1. Esdrújulas and sobresdrújulas always have a tilde on the syllable with the most stress.
2. Agudas and graves have a tilde when they violate the intonation rules (see below)

Basic Intonation Rules

1. If the stress is on the last syllable (aguda) and the word ends in vowel, n, or s, it must have a tilde.

• Panamá
• ratón
• cortés

2. If the stress is on the penultimate syllable (grave) and the word ends in a consonant other than n or s, it must have a tilde

• árbol
• azúcar
• ángel

Expanded Intonation Rules

If you do not know what agudas, graves, etc. are, the rules for using tildes, you can read our article on word stress, or continue reading below.

1. Words that end in a vowel, an -n, or an -s will be stressed on the second to last (penultimate) syllable and will not have a tilde.

• ga’-to
• ca’-sa
• za-pa’-tos
• o-ri’-gen

2. Words that end in a consonant other than -n or -s will be stressed on the last syllable and will not have a tilde.

• doc-tor’
• ciu-dad’
• a-zul’
• ha-blar’

If a word violates either of these two rules, it will need a tilde to show the reader where to pronounce the word.

• fácil - This word ends in a consonant (so it would be stressed on the last syllable, but it is stressed on the penultimate syllable, so it needs a tilde.)
• está - This word ends in a vowel (so it would be stressed on the penultimate syllable, but it is stressed on the last vowel, so it needs a tilde.)

Also, if a word is stressed on any syllable other than the last or 2nd to last, it will always require a tilde.

• América - This word ends in a vowel (so it would be stressed on the penultimate syllable, but it is stressed on the 3rd to last (ante-penultimate) syllable, so it needs a tilde.)
• Mándamelo - This word ends in a vowel (so it would be stressed on the penultimate syllable, but it is stressed on the 4th to last (ante-penultimate) syllable, so it needs a tilde.

Exceptions

Now, if you´ve ever taken a language course before, you know there are always (dreaded word) exceptions to the rules. Spanish has fewer exceptions than a lot of languages. These are all here because the tilde differentiates two words that are spelled and pronounced the same way, but mean different things. It´s all obvious in context, but when writing things out, it's nice to have the extra little signal up there.

Possessive adjectives	Personal pronouns
mi (my)	mí (me)
tu (your)	tú (you)

Examples:

• Mi amor me dio la rosa a mí. (My love gave me a rose.)
• Tienes un gato. Es tu gato. (You have a cat. It is your cat.)

Interrogatives/Question Words

All interrogative (question) words have a written accent to signal that someone is asking a question and not just making a statement.

¿Cómo?	How/What?
¿Cuál(es)?	Which (ones)?
¿Cuándo?	When?
¿Cuánto(s)/a(s)?	How much/many?
¿Dónde?	Where?
¿Qué?	What?
¿Quién?	Who/whom?
¿Por qué?	Why?

There are also several other words that "just have" accents to differentiate them other similar words. The tilde makes a big difference when written, but in speech, although they share the same sounds, the one with the tilde is pronounced with more stress.

él (he)	el (the)	Él le gusta el queso. (He likes the cheese.)
té (tea)	te (you - direct object)	Te recomiendo que bebas el té. (I recommend that you drink the tea.)
sí (yes)	si (if)	Sí, quiero ir al cafe si tienen la pizza. (Yes, I want to go to the cafe if they have pizza.)
más (more)	mas (but)	Quiero más chocolate, mas es mala idea. (I want more chocolate, but it´s a bad idea.)
aún (still, yet)	aun (even)	Aun después de una cita buena, aún él no me ha llamado. (Even after a good date, he still has not called me.)
cómo (how/what)	como (like, as)	¿Cómo se llama él? ¿Es alto como Pablo? (What is his name? Is he tall like Pablo?)
sólo (only)	solo (alone)	Iré sólo si tú vas también; no quiero ir solo. (I will go only if you go; I don't want to go alone.)

Vacaciones: cómo sacar una A estrella

Click in this link for grammar bullet points to achieve from a C to an A-star in your 'Holidays' topic speaking or writing exam.