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Reza and Craig speak about Las Fallas festival in Valencia. The passive – when and how do we use it in English? Craig tests Reza on the passive. Phrasal verbs: ‘get over’ and ‘look up’
Sport vocabulary – Is it ‘do’ or ‘practise’ sport?

The Fallas festival is ‘organized anarchy’ says Reza. It’s very loud and noisy. It’s a full-on festival. firecrackers – petardos, fireworks – fuegos artificiales, costume – disfraz
Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain is from March 15th until 19th March.

Click here to see a video about Las Fallas in Valencia.

Gramática: The passive – Is it the same as the passive in Spanish?

When do we use it in English?

Craig tests Reza on the passive:

Every year Valencian people make fallas – Every year fallas are made (by Valencian people)

Present Continuous are making – Fallas are being made

Future (will) will make – Fallas will be made

Future (going to) – people are going to eat – A lot of churros and chocolate are going to be eaten.
Past Simple People sold lots of churros – Lots of churros were sold.
Past Continuous – People were selling petardos last year – Firecrackers were being sold in the street.
Future Perfect – People will have removed the Fallas from the streets – The fallas will have been removed.
Past Perfect – We had recorded this podcast before Fallas started – Craig’s pleased that the podcast had been recorded before Fallas started.

Para estudiar más sobre el passive haz click aquí

Vocabulary Corner: SPORT

DO or PRACTISE sport? – Do sport, but practise your serve and you backhand (tennis), practise taking penalties and heading the ball (football)

DO: judo, karate, taekwondo, athletics, the high jump, 100 metres, marathon
PLAY: football, rugby, squash, tennis,

play – a game / a team / golf
beat – a team /a record
win – a game / a competition / a medal / an event / a heat / a round
score – a goal
GO: swimming, trekking, running, jogging, windsurfing, sailing, snowboarding, diving
take part in an event
bat – cricket, baseball, table tennis / racket – tennis, squash

Name the sport:
COURT: basketball, volleyball, netball, squash, tennis
PITCH: football, rugby, hockey
RING: boxing, wrestling
RINK: ice skating, ice hockey
TRACK: 100 meters, motor racing, athletics

Phrasal verb: Look up / Get over

Literal meanings / idiomatic meanings (revise ‘take off’ and ‘pick up’)

Look up

a) If you don’t know the meaning, look up the word in the dictionary.
b) Look up there! It’s a full moon tonight.
c) Now that the financial crisis has finished, things are really looking up.

Get over

a) You have to get over this wall to get to the garden on the other side.
b) Get over a divorce, get over a relationship, get over the death of a friend, get over a drug addiction, an operation etc. (recover from)
c) Craig tried to get over to Reza how important these podcasts are (to communicate, emphasize the point).

Para estudiar más phrasal verbs haz click aquí 

Do you need more practice with phrasal verbs? Buy the CD Get Ahead with Phrasal Verbs by Mike Hardinge.
Send us an email, or a sound file (mensaje de voz en mp3) with a comment or question to [email protected] or [email protected].

Por favor darnos estrellas y un comentario en iTunes.

The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called See You Later – licensed by creative commons under a by-nc license at ccmixter.org.

 

FULL TRANSCRIPTION (kindly contributed by Patricia Alonso) 

C: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of “Aprender Inglés con Reza y Craig”. This is episode 17, episodio 17. Hello Reza.

R: Hello Craig.

C: It’s good to see you, as always.

R: Same here.

C: You’re looking very well today.

R: Thank you, you too.

C: Have you been busy?

R: Quite busy, Craig, quite busy. I’m trying to get things done before Fallas is in full swing.

C: Fallas, yeah, is coming up in a few days. Maybe our listeners in countries outside Spain would be interested to know what the Fallas Festival is all about. How would you describe Fallas in one sentence?

R: I’ll say it in a word if you like.

C: Noisy.

R: Actually, two words, can I have two words?

C: Bloody noisy, jaja

R: Organised anarchy.

C: Organised anarchy. But, what happens during Fallas?

R: Oh, you name it, what it happens, what doesn’t happen?

C: The city closes down, the city… You can’t really work in Valencia during the Fallas.

R: Not in peace. There are loud noises everywhere, fires everywhere, smells of food cooking everywhere, people drinking, dancing in the street, having a good time…

C: It’s a full-on festival, full-on, it’s total anarchy.

R: It’s great, it’s really exciting, it’s worth a visit, but do not come if you don’t like crowds, it’s not for you.

C: The kids like it, it’s nice for children.

R: Kids love it.

C: Yeah, very noisy, a lot of petardos.

R: Petardos, firecrackers.

C: Firecrackers and fireworks.

R: Fuegos artificiales. And fireworks displays?

C: Fireworks displays.

R: Castillo, fuegos artificiales. Not castle in English. Fireworks display. Castle is Castillo medieval, that’s medieval castle.

C: That’s another thing. There are parades in the streets, music bands, marching bands from each barrio or neighbourhood. Costumes.

R: Yeah, which can cost a fortune, those beautiful Fallera costumes.

C: They can be up to five, six thousand euros, can they?

R: Yeah, easily.

C: Very expensive.

R: Mind you, it’s worth it, the Falleras look fantastic.

C: They look gorgeous.

R: Mmm. The hairstyle of the Falleras is very funny, it looks really like Princess Leia of Star Wars.

C: First episode of Star Wars, yeah, it does.

R: Fallera. The Republic Empress or Princess or whatever she is, she is a Fallera. Jaja.

C: Jaja. Do you enjoy Fallas?

R: I do, I do, on the whole, 90% of me loves Fallas, but there’s a 10% which now that I’m getting old and a bit, you know, hard to please, the noise can be occasionally a bit disturbing.

C: We are getting old.

R: That’s true.

C: And you live in the centre of one of the most popular neighbourhoods in Valencia for Fallas parties, loud noise in the streets, your whole area turns into a open market.

R: That’s right. Ruzafa neighbourhood. It’s probably the most famous neighbourhood as regards Fallas although there are Fallas all over the city, but in Ruzafa it’s particularly busy.

C: Are you staying here this year for Fallas?

R: No, I’m gonna go and visit my mum. It’s a pity…

C: Going to Belfast, yeah?

R: Yeah. I like the Fallas but I’ve seen quite a lot on my time like you, so to miss a year from time to time is not big deal. But I advise anybody who is interested, strongly recommend them to visit Fallas, they’ll love it.

C: If they can find a hotel during that week, it’s always from the 15^th of March to the 19^th of March. There have been talks and discussions about making it shorter I think, but between those dates every year, the 15^th to the 19^th of March.

R: Well, actually you say making it shorter but if I recall from the 1^st of March, correct me if I’m wrong here, Craig, but I think from the 1^st of March right until the last day, the 19^th of March, they have the Mascletá in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento.

C: That’s right.

R: So, for the whole of the 19 days of March they close the main square in the centre of Valencia, plaza del Ayuntamiento, they close it to traffic at 2 o’clock, every day, and they have a Mascletá. How would you describe the Mascletá?

C: It’s a very strange concept for an English person; fireworks during the day, fireworks when the sun is in the sky. So, you don’t really see much but, oh, it’s really, really loud and there’s a rhythm to way the fireworks go off.

R: I love Mascletá.

C: I like it too.

R: It’s really good.

C: You could really feel the rhythm, the ground shakes, and there’s a lot of people, you can’t move in the squares, so many people crammed into a small space and the sound echoes around the buildings in the square and it’s an incredible thing. It lasts about 15 minutes?

R: About 15 minutes, yeah. Well, actually I think it gets longer as the Fallas go on. It gests longer and longer.

C: Yeah, and more dramatic. And they have guests to come from other countries like Italy, people who do this around the world, and they have competitions I think for the best Mascletá.

R: If you like fireworks in general, visit Valencia. There is, every month there’s some excuse to have a fireworks display, but Fallas is like the most important time of the year when there’s fireworks every 10 minutes.

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C: We have some feedback this week, and a couple of itunes reviews some people have been kind enough to write a review on itunes for us. Brunos2013 on itunes says “Gracias porlos podcasts, mejorando día a día, me son de una gran ayuda”. So thank you very much, Brunos.

And Copsos says “Es perfecto para aquellos que temenos un nivel intermedio”. And María Fajardo from Spain says “Qué fácil es aprender con ustedes”. Thank you very much to those who have, thank you to those who have left reviews on itunes.

So, let’s begin with gramática and this week I though Reza we could speak a little about the passive, el pasivo. Is it the same as the passive in Spanish, would you say?

R: Pretty much yes, more or less yes.

C: And when would we use the passive in English? Why would we use the passive and not an active sentence? For example, why would we say “Fallas are made in Valencia” and not “People make Fallas in Valencia”?

R: Better to use passive, “Fallas are made in Valencia”, because the important thing are the Fallas, not the people who make them.

C: Right.

R: So, we make Fallas the subject of the sentence and use a passive verb. Fallas are made. Obviously, people make Fallas, I mean giraffes can’t make Fallas and robots still can’t make Fallas.

C: Not yet.

R: Maybe in the future, so it’s obvious that people make Fallas, so it’s obvious we don’t need to say it. Fallas are made in Valencia.

C: Ok, let’s practise a little then with some playing around with tenses. I’ll say an active sentence, try saying a sentence about Fallas, Reza, in the passive. For example, if I say every year Valencian people make Fallas.

R: Every year Fallas are made by Valencian people.

C: Yeah. And if I say as we speak, people are making Fallas.

R: As we speak, Fallas are being made. In that sentence I don’t say by people because it is unnecessary.

C: We don’t need to know, it’s not necessary information. Ok, the future: next year in 2015 I suppose Valencians will make Fallas.

R: In 2015, I suppose Fallas will be made by Valencians.

C: And I’m sure this year during Fallas people are going to eat a lot of churros and chocolate.

R: Yes, I’m sure a lot of churros and chocolate are going to be eaten.

C: And I’m sure that many people sold lots of churros last year.

R: Lots of churros were sold.

C: And people in the street were selling petardos last year.

R: Petardos or firecrackers, were sold… did you say past simple or past continuous? I can’t remember.

C: Past continuous.

R: Ah, people were selling, ok, sorry. Last year petardos, firecrackers, were being sold, past continuous passive.

C: And if you walk around Valencia on the 16^th of March the people will have removed the Fallas from the street.

R: The Fallas will have been removed, that’s future perfect passive.

C: Future perfect passive. And lastly, the past perfect, so we had recorded this before Fallas started because Fallas is very noisy and there are a lot of bangers and fireworks in the street and petardos. Reza, I’m really pleased we had recorded this before Fallas started.

R: Aha, so you’re pleased that this podcast had been recorded before Fallas started, had been recorded, past perfect passive.

C: Because now it’s nice and quiet.

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C: Moving on to the vocabulary corner and this episode I thought we could speak about some sport vocabulary. One popular mistake with Spanish speakers is the confusion with practicar deporte, because many Spanish speakers translate that to practise sports. But you can, can’t you? You can practise your backhand.

R: Ah, exactly, but that’s a particular element of a sport.

C: So you repeat a skill or you repeat something in a sport in order to improve.

R: Practise your serve, practise your backhand, practise your penalties in football.

C: Practise heading the ball… Repeat it and repeat it to improve but normally the collocation with sports is to do.

R: Do or play.

C: Or play, depending on the sport. So, let’s think of examples of sports that you do.

R: Do judo.

C: Karate, taekwondo, athletics.

R: Do the high jump, do the long jump, do the 100 metres, do the hurdles, do the marathon. And then play, things like football, play rugby.

C: Tennis.

R: Tennis…

C: Squash. Speaking of collocations, you can play a game, you can play a team and you can play a sport like golf or tennis. What collocations can you think of with beat? Ganar.

R: You can also beat a team.

C: You can beat a team.

R: You can beat a record. Beat a record, you know a record like the world record for 100 metres, is held by Usain Bolt, I imagine.

C: You can beat that if you run faster.

R: Faster than Usain Bolt.

C: Batir.

R: Yeah, good luck to you, if you can run faster than Usain Bolt.

C: Win a competition, win a game, win a medal… Can you think more with win?

R: Win an event.

C: Win an event in the Olympics.

R: Win a hit. What about win a hit in sport Craig?

C: I don’t know what this is in Spanish.

R: The first hit, the second hit, the third hit…

C: Yeah, como una ronda.

R: Yeah, a hit is a round, listeners, a round, una ronda.

C: Yeah. Score, score a goal obviously in football. We spoke about play and do. There are some sports that you go, and usually, I don’t know if you agree, they are sports that finish with ing.

R: Yeah.

C: So, swimming for example you go, you go swimming, go trekking, go running, go jogging, not footing, jogging. Can you think of more ing?

R: Go windsurfing, go sailing.

C: Kitesurfing.

R: Go snowboarding.

C: Go snorkelling, go diving. Ok.

R: But, one thing I would point out about that. You go + ing, swimming etc, but when you’re talking about sports competitions like the Olympic games or whatever, you don’t say go. For example, in the Olympic games they have swimming events, they do swimming events, not go swimming.

C: I would use the phrasal verb take part in, take part in an event, take part in a competition.

R: Yeah. Go is only for, as far as I can see, leisure activities. What do you like to do at the weekend? I like to go cycling. But if your name is Bradley Wiggins, in the Tour of France you don’t go cycling.

C: He competes.

R; He cycles, he competes, he doesn’t go cycling.

C: He competes and he takes part in an event.

R: Would you agree with that?

C: Absolutely.

R: Go + ing is for leisure activities, I think.

C: 100%. Do you know the difference between a bat and a racket?

R: Generally speaking, we talked about this before actually.

C: Did we?

R: We did. A racket has strings.

C: Ah, we have spoken about that.

R: Yeah, tennis racket, squash racket, badmington racket, but a bat has no strings.

C: Baseball bat.

R: Cricket bat. Even table tennis bat because there are no strings. We did talk about that.

C: We did talk about that. Ok.

R: But so what? So we repeat it.

C: It’s good revision.

R: You could process it by: do you remember?

C: Do you remember? Ok, name the sport, Reza. What sport do you do or play on a court?

R: Basketball, volleyball, netball, squash, tennis…

C: What about a pitch?

R: Football pitch, rugby pitch, hockey pitch.

C: Ring?

R: Boxing ring, wrestling ring.

C: Rink.

R: RINK?

C: Yeah.

R: Ice rink.

C: Ice skating.

R: So ice skating, speed skating…

C: Ice dancing.

R: Ice dancing, figure skating.

C: Yeah. And finally, track, pista.

R: Yeah, so… Excuse me, track events, they’re done on the racing track, so the 100 metres, 200 metres, 400 metres.

C: Motor hurdles.

R: Hurdles… Also track for vehicles, yes.

C: Athletics track. Good.

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C: Moving on to our phrasal verb, two phrasal verbs to look ta this week, look up and get over, and we’ve spoken before about our phrasal verbs having a literal meaning and an idiomatic meaning, and if you remember, take off you can take off your clothes which is the literal meaning, quitar la ropa, and a plane takes off, which is more idiomatic, despegar. We also had pick up, I think you’ve spoken about pick up, Reza.

R: Yeah.

C: But can you think of any different meanings for look up?

R: Sure. If you don’t know a word you can look it up in a dictionary.

C: Yes, you can look up a word in a dictionary, you can look up words on the internet, you can look up information and facts on google, look it up on google, although there is a verb, isn’t it? To google, let’s google it, it’s now a verb. But if you google something you’re probably looking it up. Any other meanings?

R: Look up at the sky, there’s a full moon.

C: Physically to look up, literally to look up at something, to raise your head. Look up there, it’s a full moon tonight, for example.

R: It’s a very literal meaning. You look up.

C: And, there’s one more I can think of. Any ideas?

R: Well, if things are looking up, that means they are beginning to improve or they look a bit better, for example in Europe the financial crisis is perhaps a little better now than a few weeks ago, it may be looking up.

C: Do you think the situation is looking up in Europe or is it still pretty bad?

R: I think it is bad but it is looking up, it’s marginally better, a little bit better, so it’s looking up a bit.

C: I think things are looking up in America, things are getting better over there, so maybe in North America things look up, they start looking up here in Spain, let’s hope so.

Finally, get over. I have three meanings of get over, any ideas?

R: Well, the literal, physical meaning, you have to get over this wall to get into the garden on the other side, get over the wall, physically pass over it.

C: One side to the other side, get over an obstacle, yeah.

R: To get over something unpleasant that has happened to you, could be to get over a divorce for example, it’s not nice to get divorced, it’s difficult to feel better…

C: Get over a relationship.

R: Yeah, get over a relationship, get over the death of a friend, get over a drug addiction, you were addicted, now you’re not, you’re getting over the addiction, so to get better after something unpleasant has happened to you.

C: So, it could be emotional or it could be physical, you can get over a cold, you can get over the flu, get over a disease perhaps.

R: Yeah, get over an operation.

C: Exactly, recover.

R: Recover, yeah.

C: There’s one more I have.

R: What could that be?

C: Let me try to get over you how important these podcasts are to our listeners, let me try to communicate to you, let me try to get the point over.

R: To emphasize the importance of something, yeah.

C: Exactly. For example, I tried to get over to Reza how important it is to study hard but he didn’t listen.

R: I didn’t listen.

C: You didn’t listen, did you?

R; And I never got above pre-intermediate French, now I could be advanced but I didn’t listen to Craig’s advice.

C: Oh, quelle horreur!

R: Jaja.

C: That’s all we have time for Estudiar Francés con Reza y Craig this episode, so remember, you can study more phrasal verbs in mansioningles.com, y voy a poner los enlaces como siempre en las notas del episodio. Send us an email or a sound file if you have a microphone, un mensaje de voz mp3 attached to your email, and send your questions, comments and sounds to [email protected] ot to Reza at [email protected].

And don´t forget to give us a report, a review, and some stars on itunes. Thank you for listening, thank you Reza for being her and we’ll see you in the next episode.

R: Au revoir mes amis!

C: Au revoir!

The music in this podcast is by Pitx, the track is called See you later, licensed by Creative Commons under a by-nc license at cc mixter.org.