English Grammar

Used ESL business English coursebooks for sale

Leave a Comment / BEC Business, Business Emails, Business English, coursebooks, English Grammar, How to Improve Your English, Writing For Business

As written in the school’s 2021 blog article “Say Goodbye to BEC Exams”, the Cambridge English exams known as BEC (Business English Certificates) are being phased out and online exam dates will no longer be offered by the end of 2023.  Swiss do have the advantage, however, since the final paper test will be offered in Switzerland in June 2024.  

Are BEC exam coursebooks of any value? 

Although the reading and listening texts may be dated with the PASS Cambridge series or Success with BEC, the active speaking and writing skill examples for emails and presentations remain relevant. Therefore, for those who wish to learn and practice useful business writing phrases and work on improving on-the-spot speaking skills, these coursebooks, in my opinion, still hold value.  They present clear examples and assists students in improving their ability to communicate logical reasoning explanations for decision-making situations and impromptu presentations or Q&A sessions.

Additional up-to-date reading and listening materials can easily be found online whilst following the clear structure of topics outlined in these coursebooks.   

Where can I purchase these BEC exam coursebooks?

The Boston School is currently clearing out its coursebook library and has listed several business English books on Amazon that can be delivered to the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.  

Here are just a few examples of nearly 100 used coursebooks on sale. All materials in good to like new condition:

PASS BEC Preliminary: Teacher, Student, Workbook and CD’s (British English language: B1)

PASS BEC Vantage: Teacher, Student, Workbook and CD’s (British English language B2)

PASS BEC Higher: Teacher, Student, Workbook and CD’s (British English language C1)

For those located in Switzerland who can not purchase from Amazon, arrangements can be made on request by sending an email with the book title, ISBN number to: rose@thebostonschool.com

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Adjectives can be fun – What are they?

Leave a Comment / English Grammar

Merriam Webster define an adjective as:

a word belonging to one of the major form classes in any of numerous languages and typically serving as a modifier of a noun to denote a quality of the thing named, to indicate its quantity or extent, or to specify a thing as distinct from something else

The word red in “the red car” is an adjective.

Adjectives can be fun because you can use them to describe all sorts of things or situations. Let us take music as an example:

  1. It was a French song
  2. Punk music had energy

Which of the words are an adjective?

  1. French
  2. energy

Fill in the blanks for each music genre:

  1. Easy Listening
  2. Rap
  3. Ambient
  • I was at a concert listening to ……….. music.
  • I was in the elevator and found myself listening to the soft   ………………………………. music.
  • I could not sleep so I decided to listen to …………….. music.

When you describe music you could use any of these adjectives in your sentence:

  • Annoying
  • Awful
  • Brisk
  • Catchy
  • Energetic
  • Fast
  • Gentle
  • Loud
  • Memorable
  • Piercing
  • Quick
  • Slow

Many of these words can be used as an adjective to describe other nouns:

  • The bus trip was awful
  • The bus journey was so slow
  • The passengers in the bus were loud
  • The bus had loud piercing brake noises when it stopped

This is why adjectives can be fun.

You will waste hours playing here at Visuwords.

Using the adjective catchy you get these results and help with your sentences and word bank learning!

free 3 minute English lesson

B1 Exercise – What vs. Which

Leave a Comment / English Grammar

Which vs. What

When do I use “Which” or “What” as the first word in a question?

When you look up “which” and “what” in a German dictionary, you will see both words translate to “welcher/welche/welches”.  So how do they differ in meaning? Which word do I use when? (Sorry, I had to use the word “which”.)

Explanations with examples for “which”:

We use “which” ONLY when there is a known choice available. There can be 2 or 20: the number of choices doesn’t matter but they often can be seen.

Example 1:

Situation: You are standing in front of a shop window and can see 2 cameras:  You ask your friend: “Which camera do you like”?  In this case, there is a limited number of choices and they can be seen.

Photographer Annie Spratt

Example 2:

Which dress do you like better?  This one or that one?

Example 3:

Here’s one from the Internet (2016):

Which Premier League Manager is facing the biggest headache?

Explanations with examples for “what” and “what kind of”:

We use “What?” or “What kind of” when we ask a general open question without any specific choices known.  In the answer, you may think of several different choices, but none of these choices have been specified to you in the question. 

Example 1:

Situation: Imagine you are at someone’s home as a guest and they ask: “What would you like to drink?”  You can not see the choices so you ask in return: “What do you have?” or “What’s easy?”

Examples 2 & 3

Situation: You want to learn more about someone and their preferences. You ask:

“What kind of apples do you like?”

(There are many “kinds” or “varieties” of apples but no specific variety has been specified in the question.)

Example 3

What is your favorite color?

(Again – a very open, general question to find out someone’s tastes.)

Let’s see now if you can complete the following quick practice exercise.

Quick Practice Exercise: Which vs. What

Fill in the blank with “which” or “what”.  (Answers provided below).

1. _________ time is it?  
2. _________ meeting would you like to attend – the morning or afternoon one?
3. ________ did they say about your report? Did they like it?
4. Can you tell me _________ is the correct answer, please?  
5. __________ contestant do you think will win?  

 

Answers to Practice 1 Exercise: Which vs. What

  1. What
  2. Which
  3. What
  4. what or which (what – if asking in general: which – if you can see 2 or more choices)
  5. Which (there are a number of contestants you have seen perform)

 

Quick Practice 2  Exercise: What vs. What kind of

Fill in the blank with “which” or “what”.  (Answers provided below).

1. _________ is your favorite number?  
2. _________ home would you prefer to live in: an apartment or a house?
3. ________ city has the tallest building?
4. Can you tell me _________ you would like to do now?  I am completely out of ideas.
5. __________ car do you have?  There are three more people who need a ride.  Is it big enough for us all?  
 

Answers to Practice 2 Exercise: What vs. What kind of

  1. What
  2. What kind of
  3. What
  4. what 
  5. What kind of

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Use of English – interesting vs. interested in

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INTERESTING vs. INTERESTED IN 

Question: When do I use “interesting” and when “interested”?

The answer may come as a surprise to you.  Let’s look at these 2 sample sentences using interested in and interesting:

a) I am interested in politics.

b) Politics is interesting.

These are not verbs.  They are both adjectives!

Here is an example  with “interest” as a verb.  Notice it is a transitive verb that needs a reflexive pronoun as its object:

c) Politics interests me. (interests = transitive verb*; me = reflexive pronoun*)

* See upcoming blog posts for explanations of these grammar terms.

3 HELPFUL RULES:

Rule 1: Use the “-ed” form when you talk about internal feelings.

Rule 2: Use the “-ing” form when describing something external.

Rule 3: Although these words are based on verbs, they are more frequently used in their adjective form.

Here are 3 more examples comparing the “-ed” and “-ing” forms:

 

 

1a) The students are bored (because the teacher and the class is boring).

2a) He seems tired (because his work is tiring).

3a) They were confused (because the story was confusing).

Now look at these examples, in the verb form:

1b) The teacher and class bored me.

2b) His work tires him.

3b) The story confused them.

Here is a short exercise to check your comprehension.

Directions: Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the word shown in brackets.

1.  The documentary they showed was very __________ (interest).

2.  The pupils seem __________ (distract) in their math class.

3. When the football season ended, the fans were rather ___________ (disappoint) their team came in second place.

4. Knowing how _________ (worry) my mother can get, I phone her every day.

5. I can hear banging noises in my office all day due to the construction work going on.  It really ________ (disturb) me.

Scroll down for the answers.

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