If I Knew You Were Coming I'd Have Baked A Cake - Third Conditional

Some First Certificate students have been learning about the Third Conditional today.

We use the Third Conditional to talk about impossible conditions, impossible because they are in the past and we cannot change what has happened.  We often use this language to talk about regrets.

	condition	result
	Past Perfect	WOULD HAVE + Past Participle
If	I had won the lottery	I would have bought a car.

Notice that we are thinking about an impossible past condition. You did not win the lottery. So the condition was not true, and that particular condition can never be true because it is finished. We use the past perfect tense to talk about the impossible past condition. We use WOULD HAVE + past participle to talk about the impossible past result. The important thing about the third conditional is that both the condition and result are impossible now.

Sometimes, we use should have, could have, might have instead of would have, for example: If you had bought a lottery ticket, you might have won.

Look at some more examples in the tables below:

IF	condition	result
	past perfect	WOULD HAVE + past participle
If	I had seen Mary	I would have told her.
If	Tara had been free yesterday	I would have invited her.
If	they had not passed their exam	their teacher would have been sad.
If	it had rained yesterday	would you have stayed at home?
If	it had rained yesterday	what would you have done?

 

result	IF	condition
WOULD HAVE + past participle		past perfect
I would have told Mary	if	I had seen her.
I would have invited Tara	if	she had been free yesterday.
Their teacher would have been sad	if	they had not passed their exam.
Would you have stayed at home	if	it had rained yesterday?
What would you have done	if	it had rained yesterday?

Gracie Fields sings If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake, see if you can find more uses of the Third Conditional in this song...

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/honSSKeXME8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Lyrics:

SPOKEN: Come in! Well, well, well. Look who's here. I haven't seen you in many
a year.

If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake, baked a cake, baked a cake
If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake
Howdya do, howdya do, howdya do?

Had you dropped me a letter, I'd a-hired a band, grandest band in the land
Had you dropped me a letter, I'd a-hired a band
And spread the welcome mat for you

Oh, I don't know where you came from
'cause I don't know where you've been
But it really doesn't matter
Grab a chair and fill your platter
And dig, dig, dig right in

If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake, hired a band, goodness sake!
If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake
Howdya do, howdya do, howdya do?

If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake, baked a cake, baked a cake
If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake
Howdya do, howdya do, howdya do?

Had you dropped me a letter, I'd a-hired a band, grandest band in the land
Had you dropped me a letter, I'd a-hired a band
Spread the welcome mat for you

Oh, I don't know where you came from
'cause I don't know where you've been
But it really doesn't matter
Grab a chair and fill your platter
And dig, dig, dig right in

If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake, hired a band, goodness sake!
If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake
Howdya do, howdya do, howdya do?

Howdya do, howdya do, howdya do?
Howdya do-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

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Happy Australia Day, Mate!

 

This Saturday is Australia Day.

The day will be celebrated by Australians everywhere, including here in Modica by our own Ozzy, the school's Director, Catherine.

The event marks the anniversary of the first arrival of British ships to the coast of Sydney and is now a day of patriotism for the Australian people.

We thought this would be a good opportunity to look at some Australian slang terms:

1.  "This arvo"

Meaning:  This afternoon

Example:   Nice weather we're having this arvo.

 

2.  "Dunnie"

Meaning:  Toilet

Example:  I have drank so much water I've been in the dunnie all this arvo.  

 

3.  "Fair dinkum"

Meaning:  genuine, the absolute truth

Example:  Joe's fair dinkum, I'd trust him with my life.  

 

4.  "Rellies"

Meaning:  relatives, members of the family

Example:  My rellies in Italy are coming to visit next year.  

 

5.  "Thongs"

Meaning:  flip-flops

Example:  I've got a new pair of thongs for the beach.  

 

6.  "Bloke"

Meaning:  a man

Example:  The bloke in the thongs seems fair dinkum.  

 

7.  "G'day mate"

Meaning:  hello friend

Example:  G'day mate, fancy coming surfing this arvo?

 

8.  "Pissed as a parrot"

Meaning:  To be very drunk

Example:  She was fair dinkum pissed as a parrot at the party last night.  

 

9.  Watering Hole

Meaning:  A pub or a bar

Example:  Bruce is pissed as a parrot at his favourite watering hole this arvo.  

 

10.  Drongo

Meaning:  A stupid person, an idiot

Example:  The bloke's a drongo, he fell down the dunnie in front of his rellies, shouting "G'day mate!" after coming home from the watering hole this arvo pissed as a parrot, wearing only his thongs, fair dinkum.  

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New free app and online game helps Cambridge English Young Learners

Taken from the Cambridge English website...



Monkey Puzzles World Tour – available both online and as a free iOS app – is the latest educational game from Cambridge English Language Assessment. Monkey Puzzles World Tour provides a fun way to practise reading and listening skills and is ideal for people taking Cambridge English: Young Learners (YLE) tests. Students join the Monkey as he travels the world through eight progressively challenging games, featuring exciting new scenes and sound effects, and including two games designed to help practise listening skills.

Building on the global success of the original Monkey Puzzles game and app, launched in 2012, Monkey Puzzles World Tour is targeted at students working towards levels A1–A2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and is ideal preparation for both the paper- and computer-based Cambridge English: Young Learners tests.

Students can access the game through the Cambridge English website, or can download the free app from the iOS App Store, allowing them to practise their English skills in the classroom, at home and on the move. Schools can also embed the game into their own websites as an additional resource for their younger students. For more information on how to access the game:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monkey-puzzles-world-tour/id738364486?mt=8

www.cambridgeenglish.org/games

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Our Excellent Scicli Teacher-Students

[caption id="attachment_695" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Some of the group with our school's Director, Catherine Ciancio who is leading the course[/caption]

Teachers from Scicli schools, Quintino Cartaudella and Scicli Centrale are studying English at our school in Modica.

The group of nine teachers are currently working towards a Cambridge Key (A2) certifcate, under the instruction of our school's Director, Catherine Ciancio.  The ultimate aim of the group is to achieve European Framework of Reference for languages level B2, in order to continue to study towards a CLIL certificate with our school.

CLIL, Content and Language Intergrated Learning is becoming an increasing demand in public schools in Italy.  CLIL is an approach for learning content through an additional language, thus teaching both the subject and the language.  CLIL is fundamentally based on methodological principles established by research on "language immersion". This kind of approach has been identified as very important by the European Commission because, "It can provide effective opportunities for pupils to use their new language skills now, rather than learn them now for use later. It opens doors on languages for a broader range of learners, nurturing self-confidence in young learners and those who have not responded well to formal language instruction in general education. It provides exposure to the language without requiring extra time in the curriculum, which can be of particular interest in vocational settings." The European Commission has therefore decided to promote the training of teachers to "..enhancing the language competences in general, in order to promote the teaching of non-linguistic subjects in foreign languages".

Our school offers CLIL training for teachers who have already achieved a general English qualification at a minimum level of B2.  We also offer courses for those who wish to gain the TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test) qualification.

The group of teachers from Scicli are working well towards their general English qualifications, their skills are steadily developing and their ability to communicate in English is excelling.  They will be taking their Key exam in the spring and we are confident all nine teacher-students will do well.

[caption id="attachment_696" align="alignnone" width="300"] Teachers working in the lab at our Modica school[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_697" align="alignnone" width="300"] Teachers studying at our Modica school[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_698" align="alignnone" width="300"] Teachers working hard at our Modica school[/caption]

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Our Ragusa School

Yesterday, Sally (our Director of Studies) spent the day at our school in Ragusa with the school's main teacher, Alistair.

She met with students and joined in on some lessons.  It seems our new school is well appreciated by students and parents in the area and everyone was focused on developing their English language skills, enjoying learning with their mother-tongue teachers and working hard towards Cambridge English qualifications.

The Ragusa school is our second learning base, situated in Centro Giorgio La Pira in Via Giorgio La Pira.  The school opened in September and, like our school in Modica, boasts well-equipped learning environments with CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, awarded by the University of Cambridge) qualified, native-speaking teachers.  Our focus is to deliver English language instruction at the highest of levels, most students will be working towards a Cambridge qualification.

So for those in the Ragusa area, who are considering starting an English course, why not pop in to the school and see what we can offer!

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Welcome New Students and New Teachers!

We are back at school and have been hearing all about what our students have been doing over the festive period.  It's great to see everyone back at school and eager to continue developing their English skills.

We have also seen a number of new students join our classes for 2014.  Indeed, many are still enrolling.  So, we would like to welcome all of our new students and wish you a very pleasant learning experience.

Joining us in 2014, are three additional teachers, two at our school in Modica and the third at our school in Ragusa.  The new staff are very much looking forward to meeting their students and helping to improve their language skills.

A very happy 2014 to everyone!

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