In the previous posting
Jay Doubleyou: antimoon
we had the example of 'blindness' to the word 'of'.
And in the posting before that
Jay Doubleyou: using bbc learning english - vocab pt 2
there were some links to pages on those terrible things 'phrasal verbs'...
The bbc learning english website has lots of useful examples of how to use prepositions.
How many prepositions in this one minute?
And what are the full phrases you found them in?
▶ Express English: Freedom - YouTube
Learning English - Express English - Freedom
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But what about something a little longer?
The BBC World Service used to offer 'English lessons' over the radio - and this service has largely transferred to the internet. But we still have these nice little lessons.
In this example we have the 'teachers' showing us how to complain effectively.
What sort of phrases do you know you can use if you need to make a complaint or deal with complaints?
And how many of them have prepositions in them...
Towards the end of this '6 minute lesson' we have a 'good' role-play (after a really 'bad' one!).
Again, can you identify the prepositions and the full phrases they are in?
Here's the opening page and below is a link to the pdf for the script of the lesson:
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Business English: Customer complaints
Would you complain face-to-face, or by email?
In this special business edition of 6 Minute English, Feifei and Neil talk about a very common situation: customer complaints. What should you say if you want to complain about something? And what should you say if you receive a complaint?
Join Feifei and Neil as Business Betty coaches them through a complaining role-play - and improve your customer service skills
Learning English - 6 Minute English - Business English: Customer complaints
wsdownload.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/pdf/2013/08/130808090924_bbc_6min_business_complaining.pdf
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And finally, a bit of help from a teacher's blog at bbc learning english on what to do with collocations:
Collocations
Taru, for your post from yesterday, I’d like to focus on collocations.
I’m sure many of you will be aware of the importance of collocation for English learners. It’s really important to familiarise yourself with combinations of words, and there are many different types of collocation. For example:
Adjective + noun: a warm smile (not a hot smile)
Adverb + verb: vaguely remember (not weakly remember)
Verb + noun: commit murder (not do murder)
These are just a few examples. The point is that the words in the collocation are often found together in English. There is no grammatical reason for this so there are no rules to learn. A bit like prepositions, you need to read a lot, expose yourself to as much English as you can, and when recording vocabulary you should make sure you write down collocations whenever you can. Using a decent concordance programme can help you learn collocations. (for more on how to use concordance programmes see Rachel’s entry below)
LE Teacher blog - concordance
In your blog post, you wrote the following:
it has made a research
it will be really far-reaching view
I would like to tell my best regards
raised our experience
In these examples, the problem is collocation. I’ve given you some correct alternatives below:
It has done/conducted/carried out research
It will have a panoramic/good/great view
I would like to give/send my best regards
Increased/enhanced/deepened our experience
Taru, for your post from yesterday, I’d like to focus on collocations.
I’m sure many of you will be aware of the importance of collocation for English learners. It’s really important to familiarise yourself with combinations of words, and there are many different types of collocation. For example:
Adjective + noun: a warm smile (not a hot smile)
Adverb + verb: vaguely remember (not weakly remember)
Verb + noun: commit murder (not do murder)
These are just a few examples. The point is that the words in the collocation are often found together in English. There is no grammatical reason for this so there are no rules to learn. A bit like prepositions, you need to read a lot, expose yourself to as much English as you can, and when recording vocabulary you should make sure you write down collocations whenever you can. Using a decent concordance programme can help you learn collocations. (for more on how to use concordance programmes see Rachel’s entry below)
LE Teacher blog - concordance
In your blog post, you wrote the following:
it has made a research
it will be really far-reaching view
I would like to tell my best regards
raised our experience
In these examples, the problem is collocation. I’ve given you some correct alternatives below:
It has done/conducted/carried out research
It will have a panoramic/good/great view
I would like to give/send my best regards
Increased/enhanced/deepened our experience
You’ve used prepositions very well in this post, Taru. Well done!
BBC World Service | Learning English | Learning English Teacher Blog
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