1.2. BFF

Focus on

 

 BBF
Imagen de Tomas Monzon en Flickr. Licencia CC

As you can see this section is called BBF. It is an abbreviation for Best Friends Forever. There are some other expressions which are similar such as To be buddy buddy or best buddies/mates.

What about your best buddy/mate?

  • Who do you you get on best with?
  • When did you meet him/her for the first time?
  • How often do you get in touch? or Have you lost touch with him/her?
  • Does he/she get along with your family?
  • Have you ever been upset by his/her actions? What happened?
  • What lessons did you learn from this behaviour?

Do it yourself

In the following exercise you will find a list of phrasal verbs with the verb get. In the questions above we have come across some of them:

  • Get on with: When people like each other and are friendly with each other. It is a synonym for get along with.
  • Get in touch: To speak or write to someone.

Match the phrasal verbs with the verb get with the correct meaning. Write the letter in the space provided:

 

PHRASAL VERBS LETTER MEANING
1. Get around a. To return
2. Get away with (something) b. To find time to do something
3. Get back c. To go to places
4. Get something back d. To meet
5. Get back into something e. To do something without being punished
6. Get by f. To throw away, give away or sell something you no longer need
7. Get on something g. To leave a bus, plane or train
8. Get off something h. To have enough to survive
9. Get over something i. To board a bus, plane or train
10. Get rid of j. To be interested in something again
11. Get round to something k. To recover from a difficulty, loss, illness...
12. Get together l. To receive something that was yours

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Do it yourself

Question

Read the sentences below and choose the phrasal verb which best suits each sentence.

1.The burglar managed to (escape) before the police arrived.

 

Answers

a) get off

b) get over

c) get away

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Question

2. Don't try to (board) the bus after it leaves the bus stop.

 

Answers

a) get away

b) get on

c) get down

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Question

3. It took my grandfather a long time to (recover from) his heart attack.

 

Answers

a) get over

b) get round

c) get by

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Question

4. The family has a very low income but they manage to (cope/survive).

 

Answers

a) get round

b) get by

c) get on

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Question

5. The child had too many toys. His mother decided to (eliminate) some of them.

Answers

a) get off

b) get away

c) get rid of

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Question

6. Why don't we all (meet) for lunch one day during the holidays?

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Moving on

     Now, it's time to check your understanding by doing this activity with get phrasal verbs.

Do it yourself

Listen to a conversation between two people talking about friendship. The following sentences are mentioned in this conversation. Write a number (1-8) next to each one according to the order in which they appear.

 

SOURCE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD3zSUdIL54

 

 

They got along when they were children.
They had an argument about a girl.
They grew up together and went to the same school.
Daniel has known his best friend for 25 years.
They had the same likes and opinions.
They keep in touch by phone, text message or e-mail.
The speakers are in Singapore.
Daniel's friend works at Heathrow airport.

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In the conversation above speakers have used PAST SIMPLE. What do you remember about the form and uses of PAST SIMPLE? What about PAST CONTINUOUS?

If you don't remember about the form and uses of PAST SIMPLE and PAST CONTINUOUS have a look at the presentation below before answering the following questions:

 

 

 

1. Which auxiliary is used to form negative and interrogative forms of past simple?

2. Which auxiliary is used for the third person singular of a sentence in past simple?

3. Look at this sentence: While I was having breakfast, the phone rang. Which verb tenses have been used?

4. How is past continuous formed?

5. Why in the following sentence has the same tense been used in the main clause and in the subordinate clause?
                   While she was preparing dinner, he was washing the dishes

Moving on

Don't forget that in English there is a group of verbs called STATIVE OR STATE VERBS which cannot be used in continuous or progressive forms.

Let's check your knowledge of Past simple and Past continuous

 

How to Pronounce
Imagen de englishmeeting
en Flickr.  Licencia CC

Now, it's time to review how to pronounce the past simple regular ending -ed.

As you already know it can be pronounced as /t/ /d/ /Id/.
But, let's find out when each sound is used.

Watch the video below and complete the rules for the correct pronunciation of the -ed ending:

 

  1. RULE NUMBER ONE: If the ending of the base verb is unvoiced, ....
  2. RULE NUMBER TWO: If the ending of the base verb is voiced, ....
  3. RULE NUMBER THREE: If the base form of the verb ends in the /d/ or /t/ sound, ...

Do it yourself

Look at the list of regular verbs in the grid below and decide which the correct pronunciation of -ed is. Write 1 next to those verbs whose ed- pronunciation is /t/, write 2 for those which are pronounced with a /d/ sound and finally write 3 if the pronunciation is /Id/

PAST SIMPLE REGULAR VERBS PRONUNCIATION
1. Asked
2. Allowed
3. Apologized
4. Brushed
5. Connected
6. Introduced
7. Liked
8. Boiled
9. Divided
10. Talked
11. Considered
12. Needed
13. Explained
14. Started
15. Wanted

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For a full list of past simple regular verbs, watch the video below and repeat the pronunciation.

 

 

 It's speaking time!

Now that we have reviewed how to use past simple, past continuous and how to pronounce past simple regular verbs, it's time to talk about past actions:

  • Talk about a time in your childhood when you did something bad and you got away with it.
  • Talk about how you got over a disappointment.
  • What was the last thing you got rid of? Why? What did you do with it?