Less, Lesser, and Least

Hi guys, how are you doing? Recently a student of mine asked me the meaning of lesser, and when to use it.

The word "less" and all of its conjugates should be used when discussing amounts that are grouped in a way as to be uncountable by traditional means. For example, "less sugar" or "less money," "fewer grains of sugar" or "fewer dollars." 

According to the Merriam Webster:

Less·er \ˈle-sər\ . adjective

: of smaller size

: of less strength, quality, or importance

Full Definition of LESSER

comparative of  little

:  of less size, quality, degree, or significance :  of lower status 

Examples of LESSER
1 The winner will receive $100; lesser amounts will be given to three runners-up.
2 A lesser man than he might have simply given up.
3 She agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge.

Related to LESSER

Synonyms

inferior, junior, less, lower, minor, smaller, subordinate

Antonyms

greater, higher, major, more, primary, prime, senior, superior

Lesser OR Least?
Lesser means "beneath." I. e., "A lesser position" or "lesser than that." 

"Least" means "the lowest," I. e., "The least favorable table" or "the least wanted position."

"Lesser" can stand alone, but "least" requires clarification.

The comic strip below is from 1988, but still very accurate:

Speechyard

Do you like movies? So here's a really cool app to help you learn while watching your favorite movies. 

For free download from your Apple Store, you can have Speechyard and watch movies or videos with subtitles in different languages. It's possible to pause the video, click in a word in the subtitle to listen to its pronunciation and see its meaning.

I just think it's worth having it. it's fantastic.

Let me know what you think about it after you've tried it.

Azar Grammar

Teachers meetings are not always painful. Last Tuesday in a teachers meeting, my coworkers Kátia Barella, whose English knowledge and desire to learn more are indubitable, suggested a website mainly designed for teachers, but that can also be used by students at all levels of English. 

azargrammar.com is surely a powerful tool with free sources for teaching and learning. Betty Azar is the author of this amazing website, and as all great thinkers and language collaborators, she proposes an exchange among English teachers spread worldwide. 

After being blessed with such an amazing tip, I feel pleased in sharing with you all.

Click in Like to follow the Facebook page and let's help our teachers allover the world to keep on building great English learners. You're brilliant, and you surely have great ideas to share. Just do it.

Hope you enjoy...and pay it forward!

Especially OR Specially?

Learners always have doubts when using specially or especially. Both words are very close in pronunciation and meaning, but have quite different uses. 

             

 

According to Inglês na Ponta da Língua and the Oxford Dictionary:

1) Especially means "particularly", "mainly", "exceptionally" and isn't used to start a sentence. 

• She loves all sports, especially swimming. 
• I especially like sweet things. 
• We chose this painting especially for you. 
• I would especially like to bring up one matter… 
• Chocolate, especially white chocolate, was João’s weakness. 
• We were especially happy to see you. 

2) Specially is closest in meaning to "for a particular purpose" and is often followed by a verb in the part participle, such as "designed", "developed", or "made".

• This course was specially designed to meet your needs. 
• She has her clothes specially made in Paris. 
• This glass has been specially made for use in cars. 
• The cake had been specially prepared for the occasion. 

It's important to highlight, however, that Oxford brings a note saying that in British English both specially and especially are used the same way, being specially less formal.

• I bought this especially/specially for you. 
• It is especially/specially important to remember this. 

Although some speakers say there's no big deal while using one or the other, proficiency exams and more grammatical observers may surely consider this slight difference in use of specially and especially. So, why not using it properly since ever?

Source: Oxford & Inglês na Ponta da Língua

New Headway - Online Practice

As a private teacher I've been using New Headway - Oxford Books for over 4 years. It was first introduced to me by my great friend Galaor Bortoletto, who has worked with this material for much longer. Year after year, Oxford has created new tools to help learners improve their abilities and find a way that best fit students' profiles. 

The 4th edition is full of fantastic digital tools for both students and teachers. One of them is the online practice that provides a huge number of exercises that are automatically corrected, giving the student instantaneous feedback. These exercises envolve grammar, vocabulary, everyday English, and much more. 

Even if you don't use this material, it's a nice recommendation for your students. 

Enjoy.

Debit or Debt?

Although both Debit and Debt are related to finances, they have slightly different uses and pronunciation. According to the Merrian-Webster Dictionary:

Debit \ˈde-bət\: an amount of money that is taken from an account. 

E.g. the bank mistakenly debited my account $200!

Debt \ˈdet\: an amount of money that you owe to a person, bank, company, etc. 

E.g. He's trying to pay off gambling debts.  

The company is has run up huge debts.

It's important to point out that, differently from Portuguese, the word "debt" is always used in the singular, as it follows:

• He is drowning in a sea of debt.  Ele está se afogando (em um mar de) em dívidas.

• He’s been working three jobs in an attempt to get out of debt. Ele está em três empregos para tentar sair das dívidas.
• The company was in debt but is now turning a profit.  A empresa estava com dívidas mas agora está começando a ter lucro.
• I am deep/heavily in debt. Eu estou atolado em dívidas.
• The family is over $50.000 in debt. A família está com mais de $50.000 em dívidas.
• More: The money a country owes another is called foreign debt.
• Source: Influx, Merriam-Webster

There Is/Are

How do you say "tem um carro em frente de casa"? 

This sentence is usually incorrect specially when translated by Brazilians. This happens because in Portuguese we use the ver "Ter" both to indicate possession or that something/ someone exists. In English, however, we use "have" to indicate possession and "there is/ are" to say that something exists. Thus, the sentence below would better be translated as "There is a car in front of my house." since I mean that exists a car in front of my house.

Here are a few other examples:

Affirmative: There is a black hat on the table.

Negative: There aren't any chairs available.

Question: Is there any milk left?

Being there is used for singular nouns, and there are for plural nouns. It's important to remember that, in affirmative cases it's possible to contract there is (there's), but there are isn't contractible. When used in short answers, use there is (E.g. "Yes, there is." and not "Yes, there's.")In the negative, you may see there's not or there isn't, and in the plural, there aren't. 

Click here for Online Practice or here and here for a worksheet.

-------------------- For Teachers --------------------

Teaching There to Be is always fun. Most books bring this grammar topic together with parts of the house, maps, and the like. So, I've been using a nice video to reinforce there is/ are. 

This video portraits a very nice bird house, which is quite similar to a human house. Here's how I make use of it in my classes:

1. Ask students to watch it for fun. After, I ask them what objects or rooms they saw.

2. I ask students some questions as "Is there a car in the video?", "Are there any flowers?", etc. 

3. I play it again and ask students to write down everything they see on it. I encourage them to observe the details.

4. After they've watched for the second time, I ask they to tell me what there is/ are in the video. Most of the times they come up with the structure automatically. If they don't, I paraphrase using there to be until they realize they must use it to describe a place.

5. Sometimes I display some words on the board/ TV to encourage students use both negative and affirmative. Obviously some of the words mentioned are in the video, others not.

It's fun. Try it. 

Superplayer

Conversando com minha querida amiga Roberta Ruschel (também aqui) , arquiteta de alta qualidade na cidade de Piracicaba com visão de mundo despojado, espontâneo, diferente e alegre, fui apresentado ao site superplayer.fm e fiquei embasbacado.

Há muito eu já pensava na utilidade de um site como este. Muito embora eu não seja dos mais musicais, este site que monta playlists com temas como "Arrumadinha na casa", "Focando no trabalho", "Rumo ao vestibular" e coisas do tipo, facilitando muito a vida de quem gosta de dar uma pitada de música pra fazer a vida mais alegre e empolgante mesmo no meio de tanto stress e confusão. As músicas tocam aleatoriamente uma após outra, dentro do mesmo tema.

Para minha felicidade, descobri que existe o aplicativo para Apple e Android, e é FREE!

É sabido que a música não só relaxa a mente como a estimula. Claro que isto não acontece pra todo mundo. De qualquer forma, atrapalhar a ausência de som e o excesso de stress com a playlist certa auxiliará o rendimento da maioria.

Dá pra deixar como som ambiente na sua loja, no seu escritório, no consultório, na sua sala, enfim, dá pra ser mais feliz! Quem não gosta de ser recebido por pessoas felizes?

Contra os padrões mais ortodoxos, fiz algumas experiências que, coincidentemente ou não, me mostraram bons resultados. No "pós-férias", durante uma avaliação de environment (ciências em inglês) e outra de inglês com alunos adolescentes que por motivos inerentes às próprias vontades haviam perdido a aula anterior que era uma revisão (revisão de um conteúdo bastante denso para environment) e que, no dia do teste chegaram com a adrenalina e "medo do fracasso" lá em cima já às 7:00, eu tive a brilhante ideia de provoca-los colocando uma das playlists com músicas do cotidiano deles bem baixinho, quebrando toda aquela tensão que a situação favorecia. Não era por menos que, durante a avaliação, enquanto pensavam sobre suas respostas, os que não estavam batendo os pezinhos no ritmo da música, estavam movimento os lábios cantando silenciosamente. Óbvio que eu deixei bem claro que se alguém se sentisse distraído, confuso ou atrapalhado por conta da música era importante que me falasse para que eu a interrompesse imediatamente, e que isso era importante para não se prejudicarem. Ninguém cogitou a interrupção, e então ao corrigir as avaliações confirmei a teoria: a música os ajudou na diminuição da ansiedade e os resultados foram muito melhores do que o esperado.

Sei que as opiniões dos educadores em relação sobre isso divergem, e mesmo como educador não sei exatamente como pensar em relação à isto. Só sei que, com estas duas turmas o saldo foi bastante positivo. Na outra aula, eles pediram BIS.

Learning English is Touching

Yesterday, while surfing Facebook, I saw a marketing video that really touched me. In order to motivate students to speak and practice English, CNA which is a well known language school in Brazil decided to innovate. 

They created a computer program similar to Skype called "Speaking Exchange", in which Brazilian students of English would interact with elderly people from the USA. By doing so, both students and seniors would benefit from the experience. Considering students intend to speak English fluently through more humanistic and real ways and those experienced people want someone interesting to share their experiences and learn different thing, why not linking then?  

When both get in touch, the native speakers are usually very kind, funny, and helpful. They help students with pronunciation and grammar mistakes. In addition, who else would be able to talk about American culture better than such open-hearted people? 

Check it out:

Well, I really don't know CNA practices and methodology, but as a teacher of English I have to confess that I not only felt touched, but also I saw in this action a really new and efficient way of turning this into a better world.  Congratulations! 

Oh, and you don't need to be a CNA student to do the same. Just look for retirement communities in the US, England, Ireland or in any other English speaking country, send an e-mail talking about your will and get Skype started. It'll be great experience. I recommend. 

News in Levels

After reading the latest post on Personal English Teacher Blog from August 5 talking about how to improve listening, I found a link that I consider fantastic  to improve reading, vocabulary, listening, and writing...besides helping you be up to date with worldwide news.

Teachers are always recommending students study at home because the classes themselves won't be enough to achieve the goal. So here's a nice website: News in Levels.

On News in Levels, students can find accurate news about what's going on all around the world. In addition, the news come in 3 different levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Each level is followed by a written and spoken text so that you practice both reading and listening. Want more? Each text brings a group of words considered "difficult". Don't worry, these words are followed by synonyms that will help you understand the context. This will help you learn more vocabulary and different expressions.

Oh...I almost forgot to tell you how you can also practice writing. Just leave comments on the news you read.

News in Levels also has a Youtube Channel. Click here to watch it.

Now you have no excuses to get better in English! Just do it!