Learning language from students’ genuine experiences and interests create authentic learning opportunities, from their contexts, for using and developing their English skills.
Teaching approaches and methodologies must create authentic opportunities for students to communicate and express their opinions.
So, the first thing I like to do when I meet my students is to catch upon the things that have happened to them since the last time we met.
The first meaning of the phrase to catch up, in the literal sense (/ kætʃ / caught / caught), is to walk faster or run to catch up to someone.
But, the figurative meaning of to catch up, is to talk with someone you know and you have not seen for some timeto find out what they have been doing, or to exchange or to learn the latest newsorinformation.
Let’s have a coffee next week and catch up.
By the time coffee came, John and Paul had already caught up a little bit.
Let’s go for a coffee – I need to catch upon all the gossip.
I’ll catch up with you another time, Kevin.
It’s always good to catch up with old friends.
He used the train journey to catch up with/on the morning news.
As a noun, catch-up means a meeting at which people discuss what has happened since the last time that they met.
I’m seeing my boss for a catch-up next week.
I’ll leave you two alone – I’m sure you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
In this lesson, you are going to learn some adjectives that describe you moods (emotional states), that is, you will learn to express how you are feeling: sad, angry, anxious, and much more.
Imagine the following situation: you met a friend you haven’t seen in a while and, when you say hello (“Hey, how are you?”), He replies (check here for answers): “Oh, I’m OK, but I’m feeling a little bit cranky ”. What do you imagine he means? Is he bored? Tired out? No, no, cranky means “grumpy”. Do you know when you don’t sleep well and wake up angry? So that’s it!
Now, let’s see some more mood adjectives:
Angry (nervoso, bravo) I’m angry because the bus is late.
Anxious (ansioso, com o coração apertado) She’s feeling anxious due to the presentation.
Ashamed (envergonhado) That woman just fell on the street. I bet she is feeling ashamed right now.
Bored (entediado) Rainy Sundays get me so bored.
Calm (calmo) They fought yesterday but they seem to be calm now.
Confident (confiante) My brother studied so hard for the test. He’s confident he will pass.
Confused (confuso) I’m feeling a little bit confused.
Depressed (deprimido) After seeing that movie we all got a little depressed.
Disappointed (decepcionado) His boss was disappointed with his project.
Embarrassed (envergonhado) Stop it! I get so embarrassed when you do this.
Excited (entusiasmado) Wow! The new X-Men movie is out. I’m so excited!
Exhausted (exausto) After hours on the bus, I’m exhausted.
Frustrated (frustrado) Her sister got so frustrated when she heard about that rumour.
Happy, cheerful (feliz) She’s feeling more cheerful today. I got a promotion at work! I’m so happy right now!
Impatient (impaciente) Wow, that man must be really impatient, he is pushing everyone around.
Jealous (ciumento) Every time he checks her facebook page, he gets jealous.
Lazy (preguiçoso) I feel so lazy right now. I think I’ll order a pizza.
Lonely (solitário) There’s no one at home and she’s feeling lonely.
Moody (mal-humorado) My father woke up so moody today. I bet he had a nightmare.
Nervous (nervoso, ansioso) He gets nervous before tests.
Relaxed (tranquilo) When you start doing yoga, you get more relaxed each day.
Relieved (aliviado) She felt relieved when she saw the test had been cancelled.
Sad (triste) He told me he was sad because his dog passed away.
Scared (assustado) The little boy got scared when he saw the lion at the zoo.
Shocked (chocado) My uncle told me he was shocked after the robbery.
Shy (tímido,envergonhado, reservado) He was a quiet, shy man.
Tense (tenso) When I left home, my wife was feeling so tense. She has a job interview today.
Tired (cansado) After a long day of work, I get so tired.
Touched, moved (emocionado) He was touched by the music. I got touched reading that book you lent me.
Uncomfortable (desconfortável, sem graça, sem jeito) I got uncomfortable when they started fighting in front of me.
Weird (estranho) I don’t know, I’m feeling weird.
So now you know how to express what you feel in English in a more diverse way. Remember to use the verb to be to speak how you are. You can also choose to use the verb to feel, which means “sentir(-se)” and to get with the sense of “tornar(-se)”, “alterar o estado”.
Watch the video about the phrasal verb ‘go through,’ read about it below, and make notes of the examples that are not in the text.
The phrasal verb ‘go through’ has several uses in professional and social contexts.
To ‘go through’ something can mean:
To examine, study, or search for something in a thorough or detailed way.
You might ‘go through’ an article, for example, to find specific information; or ‘go through’ your work to look for any mistakes.
If a request, contract, law, or change in rules is accepted or approved, you can say that it has been ‘gone through’, meaning that it has passed many stages and is now ready to be put into action.
With credit or debit card payments, if they are approved you can say they ‘went through,’ or if the payment is rejected, you can say it ‘didn’t go through.’
To ‘go through’ something can also mean to experience or survive a difficult or unpleasant situation or period in your life. So, you can ‘go through a tough time’ or ‘go through a difficult experience’, for example.
To ‘go through’ something can also mean to ‘use up’ materials or resources.
So, you can say you ‘go through’ a lot of coffee when you are working late, for example.
To ‘go through’ something can also mean to rehearse or to practice something.
You might ‘go through’ a speech a few times before delivering it, or a dancer or athlete might ‘go through’ their movements many times to perfect them.
If you follow a particular schedule or precise steps or procedures, you can say you ‘go through several steps’ or you ‘go through a routine’.
Examples of‘go through’ are:
1 A friend’s company has a job opening they think you should apply for. They offer to help you tailor your CV for the application:
“I can meet you this evening to go through your CV before you apply for the job.”
2 A colleague has asked you to send a report to their new e-mail address. You received an e-mail telling you that your message could not be sent:
“I tried to send the report to you yesterday evening, but it appears the e-mail did not go through.”
3 Your company is hosting an educational event for students from local schools. You want to make sure you have enough sandwiches for lunch:
“How many sandwiches do you think 80 school children will go through?”
4 You are driving for a long time and you want to stop for lunch:
“We can turn off the motorway, and go through the town to look for a restaurant.”
So as you saw, this phrasal verb has many different uses.
Now, listen to ‘go through’ in the video below at 0.47 seconds.
When you are talking about PHYSICAL DISTANCES, you can use either word:
The hospital is near.
The hospital is close.
Both these sentences are correct and mean the same thing, a SHORT DISTANCE.
NEAR and CLOSE have also this same meaning when referring to TIME:
Summer is near.
Summer is close.
When close has this meaning, it is pronounced /kləʊs/.
And notice that close is often followed by the preposition to:
The hospital is close to the park.
The hospital is near the park.
Be Careful! Don’t confuse the adjective close with the verb close /kləʊz/. If you close something, you move it so that it fills a hole or gap.
Close near
Now, when you are talking about something that deals with ABSTRACT IDEAS OR QUALITIES, like RELATIONSHIPS, you use CLOSE instead of near:
My friend and I live in different countries, but we are very close.
Here, I am saying that my friend and I are not in the same physical area, but we are emotionally connected. We are good friends.
However, if I say, “My neighbor and I live in the same apartment building, but we are not close,” I mean we occupy the same physical area, but we are not emotionally connected. My dog tried to bite his dog once, and he has never spoken to me again!
You can refer to someone you know well as a close friend.
Mike and I are very close friends.
His father was a close friend of my father.
You can refer to someone who is directly related to you as a `close relative.
She had no very close relatives.
You can also refer to someone as a `near relative, but this is less common.
You can say:
They’re a close family.
My dad was closer to his brother than to his sister.
Close is also used in the following collocations:
a close encounter The mountaineer Joe Simpson has had several close encounters with death.
a close race After a close race, Obama won the election.
a close finish It was a close finish – only a tenth of a second separated the two runners.
Near close
a near miss The asteroid passed 27,700 km from the surface of Earth – a near miss.
in the near future The volcano could erupt in the near future, according to scientists.
in the near distance We could see someone in the near distance.
Near and nearby both mean close. They are just used differently in the sentence.
Here are some guidelines:
Use NEAR as a preposition that states the proximity of something to something else– where something or someone isin relation to another thing or person.
It is what a PREPOSITION does. A preposition is a word that shows the relation of one word in a sentence to another word.
There is a beach near my house. (this means that there is a beach close to my house)
He worked in a restaurant near the station. Not: He worked in a restaurant nearby the station.
NEARBY can never be properly used as a preposition, although you may hear someone say it occasionally:
The book is nearby the table. (it is not considered correct)
The book is near the table. (near means close to the table)
Use NEARBY before a noun, as an ADJECTIVE, meaning ‘not far away’:
We can meet at a nearby beach.
Luckily, the nearby buildings weren’t damaged by the fire.
Or use NEARBY, meaning ‘not far away’, near whatever is being mentioned, as an ADVERB, to say that something is closewherever what or who is being mentioned is:
The beach is nearby.
Does Paul live nearby?
Remember that an ADVERB is a word that tells us more about a verb, an adjective or another adverb. It describes or modifies these words.
So,note that NEARBY can appear either before or after a noun that it describes, but NEAR can normally appear only before the noun, and even then, only when referring to time:
We slept at a nearby motel. (nearby + noun)
We slept at a motel nearby. (noun + nearby)
I hope to visit you in the near future. (near + noun, and near=close in time)
So, NEAR can mean close in time (=soon), as well as close indistance, but nearby cannot, as shown below:
Summer is near. [near=close in time]
May is nearby. [nearby cannot mean close in time]
According to Practical English Usage by Michael Swan, near to is also possible with the same meaning as near, but it is less common.
