Записи в категории «Аудио»

  • «He wouldn’t know» or «he doesn’t know»?

    Аудиоурок английского языка. Какая разница между wouldn’t know и don’t know? Ответ на этот вопрос приблизит вашу разговорную речь к стандартам носителей языка.

    I have been living in the UK for about six years, but I still have a problem in using ‘do’ and ‘would’. For example what is the different between:

    He wouldn’t know and He doesn’t know?

    Hi Mohammed, thanks for your question. The main point to consider here is that ‘does’ and ‘doesn’t’ are all present simple forms of the verb ‘to do’. One of the main uses of the present simple is to express a general truth, a fact, habit or routine when we’re not only thinking about now but thinking in general. In your example, you say

    «He doesn’t know»

    – this suggests to me a simple fact or general truth about his situation, in the same way that if I say «I don’t own a cat» or «He doesn’t like ice-cream» this is simply a general fact or truth without any particular time attached to it.
    ‘Would’ can be used in several different ways, but to relate my answer to your specific example,

    «He wouldn’t know»,

    we’re using it in this case to hypothesise or imagine how much -or conversely -how little he knows. Here we don’t think it’s very likely that he would know, but it’s not as definite as using the present simple form ‘doesn’t know’ where you feel absolutely sure about the limits of his knowledge. So one of the most common uses of ‘would’ or ‘wouldn’t’ is to hypothesise or imagine a situation or action. If we want to express this in the past, we have to use ‘would’ or ‘wouldn’t’ with ‘have’ and the past participle -in this case ‘wouldn’t have known’ or ‘wouldn’t have done.’

    For example:
    There was no point asking him yesterday because he wouldn’t have known then.
    These are certainly not the only uses of ‘would’, but I hope, at least, this answers your question about the functions of ‘would’ as it appears in your sentence.

  • Regrets. Как выразить сожаление?

    Этот аудиоурок поможет изучить одну из достаточно трудных грамматических конструкций «wish +past perfect». Эта конструкция в английском языке выражает сожаление о чем-то не  сделанном в прошлом.

    Mark didn’t take his umbrella to the park, and now he regrets it. Elena bought an expensive dress, and she regrets that too.

    Mark: I wish I had taken my umbrella.

    Let’s break that down. Mark used: I wish, with the past perfect. Now remember, the past perfect has 3 parts; a subject, like I, you, he, then ‘had’ and finally, the past participle, for example, take, took, taken — taken is the past participle. So ‘I had taken’ is past perfect. So, when Mark says: I wish I had taken my umbrella. He’s using ‘I wish’, with past perfect, to talk about past regrets.

    Mark regrets something that didn’t happen — he didn’t take his umbrella, and he wishes he had. But Elena regrets something that did happen: she bought an expensive dress, but she never wore it. So she uses I wish with I hadn’t bought — that’s a negative past perfect.

    Elena: I wish I hadn’t bought a rather expensive dress in the sales.

    One more thing, if you’re talking about he or she, don’t forget to say wishes instead of wish — so if you’re talking about Elena, say ‘she wishes she hadn’t bought that dress’.


    subject wish(es) past perfect
    I wish I had bought a new coat


    subject wish(es) past perfect
    She wishes she hadn’t bought a new coat


    Do/does subject wish past perfect
    Does she wish she hadn’t bought a new coat?
  • Let & allow

    Аудио урок английского языка. Как и в каких случаях используются английские слова: «let» и «allow».

    Matt didn’t see much of the concert. When he went out to get a drink, he was refused permission to go back in. In English, to talk about giving and refusing permission, we can use both let and allow. Both words mean ‘give permission to do something’.

    First, here’s Matt using let.

    Matt: …they let me go out to get a drink, but then they wouldn’t let me back in!

    Now the verb let is usually followed by a noun or object pronoun, and then by an infinitive without «to».

    Matt: …they let me go out to get a drink…

    Did you hear it? Let, me, go. Let, pronoun, infinitive.

    Now, let can be made negative by using an auxiliary verb, like didn’t, can’t or wouldn’t. And it’s possible to use a prepositional phrase like ‘back in’ instead of the infinitive.

    Matt: … they let me go out and get a drink, but then they wouldn’t let me back in!

    Now, we can also use ‘allow’ to talk about permission. Like ‘let’, ‘allow’ is followed by a noun or

    object pronoun, but then, it takes an infinitive with «to», like this:

    Matt: They allowed me to go out.

    Like let, you can use won’t or wouldn’t to make a negative:

    Matt: They wouldn’t allow me to go back in.

    But ‘allow’ is a bit more formal than ‘let’, and so it’s common to find it in the passive form, like


    Matt: ‘people who leave the auditorium during a performance are not allowed to re-enter’.

    Let and allow are both followed by nouns or object pronouns. ‘Let’ takes an infinitive without «to», and ‘allow’ takes an infinitive with «to».

    Both can be made negative with an auxiliary verb, and allow is often used in the passive form.





    infinitive or preposition phrase

    They let me go out and get drink
    They wouldn’t let me back in





    infinitive with «to»

    They allowed me to go out and get drink
    She won’t allow anyone to smoke in the office

    Allow (passive)

    Passive subject

    verb ‘to be’


    infinitive with «to»

    He wasn’t allowed to go out and get drink
    Nobody is allowed to smoke in the office
  • «For» and «Since»

    Небольшой урок грамматики об использовании английских слов «for» и «since».

    It is possible to leave out the word for.

    For example:

    «I’ve lived here for seven years» is the same as saying

    «I’ve lived here seven years.»

    Both are perfectly correct. But in negative sentences, we almost always use for:

    «She hasn’t seen him six months» is wrong. Instead we’d say «She hasn’t seen him for six months.»

    And with expressions like all morning, all my life or all day, we never use for:

    «He’s lived there all his life» not «He’s lived there for all his life.»

    We use since when we mention a point in time in the past, when something began.

    For example:

    since 2003; since last January; since 4 o’clock

    since July; since breakfast time; since the war

    So, to recap.

    We use for and since to talk about how long something has been happening.

    We use for with a period of time and we use since with a point in time.

  • «Just» or «Only»

    Аудиоурок английского об английских словах  «Just» и «Only»

    First, I ‘just’ want to say thanks for your question. Or perhaps I could say it like this — I ‘only’ want to say thanks for your question. Can you hear and understand there is a difference in meaning in those two sentences?

    The first means I want to thank you, and the ‘just’ that I slipped in there doesn’t really add any meaning. It does give my sentence a polite and informal tone though. The second sentence using ‘only’ means I want to thank you but I don’t want to say anything else after that. ‘Just’ and ‘only’ are adverbs that point to or emphasise one part of the clause. In the example you gave me, Edgar, the same meaning is implied in both sentences:

    I came just to speak with you for a couple of minutes.

    I came only to speak with you for a couple of minutes.

    But I’d like to point out that your sentences sound very formal and literary. On the one hand, ‘just’ and ‘only’ can ‘float around’ in a sentence and take more than one position. But on the other, the normal position in spoken English is between the subject and verb. They sound much better like this:

    I just came to speak with you for a couple of minutes.

    I only came to speak with you for a couple of minutes.

    In many cases you’ll come across in spoken English, ‘just’ is used as a softener. I’d better give you an example to explain what I mean by ‘softener’:

    Can I just ask you a question?

    What I’m saying here is ‘I want to ask you a question but I don’t want to inconvenience you and it’ll only take a short time’.

    Whereas directly saying ‘Can I ask you a question?‘ doesn’t have this tone.

    So, we often use ‘just’ to add a polite tone, the word doesn’t specifically carry much meaning in itself. There are other situations when we use ‘just’ but we can’t use ‘only’ in its place, for example,

    if I say ‘he was just here’ — I’m trying to tell you he was here a few minutes ago.

    So although I’ve told you about some differences, there are lots of times when they are synonymous. Basically, anytime you can use ‘only’, you can usually use ‘just’ to mean the same thing. But you’ve got to remember that the range of uses and meanings for ‘just’ are quite wide.


  • Between or Among

    В чём разница между словами: «Between» и «Among»? Ответ узнаете из этого аудио-ролика.

    Hello Chuan!Well done! Jackie said the location was fantastic. It’s among the trees, between the mountains and the sea, and not too far from the station. Between and among are both prepositions, and they are usually followed by nouns. Let’s look at between first.

    Between is usually followed by 2 nouns, like this: …between the mountains and the sea The nouns can be single, plural or uncountable. The important thing is that between identifies them as 2 separate, individual things (or groups of things). Here are some more examples:

    Is there a connection between unemployment and crime?

    He shared the money equally between Jake and Mary.

    In fact, it is possible to use between with more than 2 things, as long as they are separate things. Listen:

    He shared the money equally between his 3 grandchildren, Paul, Callum and Nuala.

    Now among, or amongst, gives the idea of being part of a group of many, so it’s usually followed by a plural noun phrase. Jackie says her house is: …among the trees And some more examples:

    Her exam results put her among the top 10% of students in her group

    It gets very lonely, living among strangers

    Ok, let’s summarise. Between distinguishes 2 or more separate things — and is followed by countable or uncountable, single or plural nouns. Among means ‘one of many’, and usually goes with plural nouns.


    clause between noun(s) — referring to individual things
    He shared the money equally between Jake and Mary


    clause among plural nouns