Conditionals: Review

In this 8-minute video, teacher Brian Rhodes reviews the three most frequent types of conditional sentences.



In the following short video from Real English, you can hear native speakers responding to the question, "What would you do if you had ten million dollars (or pounds)?" This is the second (nonpast unreal) conditional.



The last video features clips of song lyrics that use the conditional. It includes all kinds of music: new, old, country, etc.

Reported Speech and Quoted Speech

Jennifer Lebedev explains about reported speech in this 10-minute introductory lesson:



In the second of the series, Jennifer discusses the changes we make when turning quoted speech into reported speech. The video is about eleven minutes long.



In the third lesson in the series, Jennifer talks about the "sequence-of-tenses rule"--how verbs change when we report someone else's speech.

If the World Were a Village of 100 People (Unreal Conditionals)

This video is one of many that try to make world population statistics more meaningful by imagining that the entire population of the world is one village of 100 people.

003s with President Mote

 

 

UM Holiday Greeting Card

 

 

 

 

Gerunds and Gerund Phrases

A gerund is the -ing form of a verb that functions as a noun in a sentence: as the subject, direct object, or object of a preposition. Like infinitives, gerunds are verbals.

"Yossarian the Grammarian", aka Mr. Thoth, explains gerunds and gerund phrases in this video:



In the next video, gerund phrases tell you what you see as you listen to an old rock and roll song about a Honda motorcycle.

The Harder They Come (Jimmy Cliff)

Jimmy Cliff, reggae musician from Jamaica, wrote and originally recorded this classic song in 1972. Notice the "double comparative."



Lyrics
Oh, yeah, well, they tell me of a pie up in the sky
Waiting for me when I die
But between the day you're born and when you die
They never seem to hear even your cry

Refrain
So as sure as the sun will shine
I'm gonna get my share now, what's mine
And then the harder they come
The harder they'll fall
One and all
Ooh, the harder they come
The harder they'll fall
One and all

Well the oppressors are trying to keep me down
Trying to drive me underground
And they think that they have got the battle won
I say, forgive them Lord, they know not what they've done

Refrain

And I keep on fighting for the things I want
Though I know that when you're dead you can't
But I'd rather be a free man in my grave
Than living as a puppet or a slave

Refrain