A Good Fit: Longer Sentences
| This is an entry in the A Good Fit series. You can find more information at the series’ main page.
This entry is available as a Adobe Acrobat file for printing or use in a class. This entry includes a listening exercises. You can dowload the MP3 or play it using the button below. (MP3) |
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When you learn English as an American—I mean, when you grow up speaking English—you learn complicated English just as fast as you learn complicated thinking. But, when you learn English as an adult, you have many complicated thoughts that are difficult to express in English.
My advice is to practice explaining complicated ideas in short sentences. This is an important skill in any language, but if you speak to someone who speaks only a little English, you will still want to communicate. Even as your own English improves, you’ll want to be able to speak to people who only speak a little.
And, of course, you’ll want to learn how to join or combine simple ideas into more complicated ideas. Today we’re going to talk about some words you can use to show the contrast between two ideas. We’ll discuss the words ‘although‘ and ‘considering.’
Before Your Listen To the Recording
Think about the things in your life that don’t match. (You should know the word ‘match,’ that was yesterday’s vocabulary.) Maybe you don’t like English, but you’re learning it. (For work, I guess.) Or, a big contrast in my life is that I hate the cold, but I live in Germany, where there are very cold winters! You don’t have to write your list of contrasts down, but don’t forget them.
Listen to the recording now.
After You’ve Listened To the Recording
Okay. You know how to use the word ‘and,’ right? You knew that already. And the word ‘but’ should have been review, too. But had you heard the words ‘although’ and ‘considering’ before?
Now that you know the words ‘although’ and ‘considering,’ can you use them to express the ideas from before you listened? My examples could be “Although I don’t like English, I have to learn it.” And “Considering I don’t like the cold, it’s a little bit strange that I live in Germany where the winter is so cold.”
If you post your examples as comments here at Bite Sized English, I’ll be happy to correct them for you.
Vocabulary
Contrast: One thing I really hate on the Internet is when people make web pages with bad colors. If they make the letters on their page yellow, and the background white, I can’t read anything! The colors aren’t different enough for me to read. Or, there isn’t enough contrast. Contrast is a word meaning ‘difference you can see easily.’ There’s a lot of contrast between me and my sister—I’m a man and she’s a woman—but there isn’t much contrast between my brother and I: some people can’t tell us apart. (I say I’m the good-looking one!)
Although: We use the word ‘although’ to show contrast. I can say ‘Although I’m not very talented, I like to play the piano.’ That means: I think there’s a contrast between having no talent and liking to play. Normally, we use the word although in front of a general statement, and have a more specific example of a contrast. “Although the weather in Dresden can be bad, tourists love it here.” The general statement is that the weather can be bad, and the specific contrast is that tourists love the city.
Considering: When you think about it the fact that my father is a math teacher, it’s hard to believe I’m can’t do any math. It’s true, but it’s also a very long sentence. We can skip the first part by using the word ‘considering.‘ I can say “Considering my father is a math teacher, it’s hard to believe that I can’t do any math.” The meaning is the same. The word ‘considering‘ doesn’t have to be used for contrast. It can be used to show any connection: “Considering there was a piano in my parents’ house when I was a boy, it’s no surprise that I like piano music.”
