2015-08-25 Core: 7 houses and comparatives

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
(This is the Core class.)
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p. 81 part 2 and 3 - in pairs discuss your experiences with these things
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What are some different types of place you can live?
house, apartment, villa, hotel, motor home, boat, houseboat, tent, cave, hut, tipi, igloo, tiny house
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p. 82 - why would people live in the first three types of house? what are the advantages?
A house on stilts can be useful for the tides (when the ocean level goes up and down twice a day).
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part 1
Are basements typical in your country? Attics?

Frank Lloyd Wright designed many amazing houses, but a lot of them leak when it rains or snows too much.

What is the difference between yard and garden? balcony/terrace? closet/wardrobe?
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BREAK
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housing = noncount noun that includes every type of place that people live
p. 82 part 3 - listen to the answers and match them with the correct questions
p. 83 part 4 - listen again and complete the sentences
1 bad weather
2 more basic
3 shelter
4 brick or stone
5 house
6 your house
7 design
8 cities
part 5 - which expressions in part 4 describe these things?
1 smaller and smaller
2 the colder the climate, the warmer your house needs to be
3 better, best

The thicker your walls are, the lower your heating costs will be.
The more money you have, the more money you can make.
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comparatives and superlatives:

short adjectives (one syllable, or two if the last syllable is just -y or -le):
cheap -> cheaper -> cheapest
nice -> nicer -> nicest (if it ends with -e)
big -> bigger -> biggest (if it ends with -CVC, and the last consonant is NOT w, x, or y)
happy -> happier -> happiest (if it ends with -Cy)

longer adjectives:
careful -> more/less careful -> most/least careful

irregular comparatives:
good/well -> better -> best
bad -> worse -> worst
far -> farther/further -> farthest/furthest
much/many -> more -> most
little (quantifier) -> less -> least
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https://books.google.com/ngrams/ - to check how common certain words or expressions are in English books (throughout history)
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I have less money and fewer friends now than I had in Michigan.

“My house is less big than your house.” - we don’t say “less big”
how can I express the same meaning, with the word “big”, in a grammatically correct way?
-> My house is not as big as your house.

With longer adjectives, we have two choices:
A ger is less solid than a brick house.
A ger is not as solid as a brick house.
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I am just as tall as my father. (emphasize that we are the same height, I’m not shorter)
I am not quite as tall as my father. (the difference is small, but I am slightly shorter)
I am not nearly as tall as my father. (the difference is large, I am much shorter)
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My house is bigger than all the other houses on my street.
= My house is the biggest house on my street.
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English has some dual words that we use for exactly two things:
[comparatives]
both (“all” for more than 2)
neither (“no” or “none” for more than 2)
either (“any” for more than 2)
whether (“which” or “what” for more than 2)
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Homework: p. 83 part 7 and read the article on p. 87, circle or list words you don’t know