From Africa to Asia: Paco had been taking so many pictures

In this topic you will learn about the Past Perfect Continuous Tense and modal verbs. These verbs are also called auxiliary modal verbs. Modals are very easy, you'll see.

As for phonetics, you are going to learn, distinguish and reproduce the sounds /e/, /ə/ and /ɜ:/. 

Let's go. 

 

 

Icono IDevice Listening activity

Watch the following video to gain a general idea of how to deal with modal verbs in English.


Then, answer the question below:
1) How many modal verbs appear in the video?
Say if the following statements are true or false:
2) Modal verbs go before a verb in the simple form.
3) You can't use 'to' after any modal verb.
4) 'Would' isn't the past tense of will.



Icono IDevice Important

All the auxiliary verbs except be, do and have are called modals. Unlike other auxiliary verbs, modals only exist in their helping form; they cannot act alone as the main verb in a sentence.

Be, do, and have also differ from the other auxiliaries because they can also be used as ordinary verbs in a given sentence.

The modal verbs are: can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, ought to, will, would.


Icono IDevice Curiosity
The city of Kolkata

 

Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. When referred to as Calcutta, it usually includes the suburbs, and thus its population exceeds 15 million, making it India's third-largest metropolitan area and urban agglomeration as well as the world's 8th largest agglomeration.

 

Kolkata is the only Indian city with trams
The Hooghly River with Vidyasagar Setu in background. Dakshineswar Kali Temple in Kolkata
By Indianhilbilly. C. Commons.
 By Indianhilbilly. C. Commons By T. Maximov. C. Commons

 

Kolkata served as the capital of India during the British Raj until 1911. Once the centre of modern education, industry, science, culture and politics in India, Kolkata has witnessed intense political violence, clashes and economic stagnation since 1954. Since the year 2000, economic rejuvenation has spurred on the city's growth. Like other metropolitan cities in India, Kolkata continues to struggle with the problems of urbanisation: poverty, pollution and traffic congestion. 

Source: wikipedia.

 


Icono de iDevice AV - Reflexión

Modal verbs are special verbs which behave very differently from normal verbs.

Some common modal verbs are: can, could, may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, will, would.

Click below to see some important differences:

Idioms and proverbs

Idioms are phrases and sentences that do not mean exactly what they say. Even if you know the meaning of every word, you may not understand the idiom because you don't understand the culture behind it.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

By Eduardo Amorin Creative Commons.

You can give someone the opportunity to learn or to do something, but you can never force them to accept that opportunity.

Icono IDevice Further knowledge

Remember that, whenever you want to know the pronunciation of any word or phrase, or if you want to practice pronunciation, you can write something under Mike and he will pronounce it for you!

About modal verbs with explanations in Spanish.

If you need more information about modal verbs, you can have a look at this video with lots of example.

Click here to study the formation of the modal verbs in affirmative, negative and interrogative.


Let's begin with the Past Perfect Continuous tense in English. It's not difficult.
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