BOX SET: English In A Minute 16 – TEN English lessons in 10 minutes!

The third conditional is a little strange, because  we're talking about something that didn't happen  

in the past. Why would we do that? Well, because  sometimes we want to imagine a different outcome.  

A friend of mine came to visit me yesterday - it  was a surprise, so, when I opened my front door  

I said: if I'd known you were coming, I would  have baked a cake. Did I know she was coming?  

No. Did I bake a cake? No. So, I'm imagining a  different result because we're talking about an  

imaginary past. We use 'if' plus 'the subject'  plus 'the past perfect' and then the 'subject'  

plus 'would have' plus 'past participle', and  you can also swap those around. What would you  

have done if you'd known your friend was coming?  Hi, I'm Phil from BBC Learning English. Today,  

I'm going to tell you five ways to use 'in' with  time expressions. Number one: months. I can say  

I'm going on holiday in May. Number two: seasons.  So, we can say in winter it's cold. Number three:  

years. So, I can say I finished school in 2000.  Number four: most times of day. I leave home in  

the morning, I get home in the evening but  I go to sleep at night - it's an exception.  

Number five: we use it with 'in the past', 'in  the present' and 'in the future'. In the future,  

you'll learn everything from videos. Hi,  I'm Roy, and today I'm going to tell you  

about using comparatives to say that someone  or something is changing or developing. So,  

the structure is like this: 'comparative'  plus 'and' plus 'the same comparative'. So,  

we put the 'and' in the middle of the two  comparative adjectives. Every year, I look older  

and older. Don't forget that with adjectives  of two or more syllables like 'beautiful',  

we use the word 'more' plus an adjective to make  the comparative. We don't add 'E-R' with these,  

we add the 'and' in the middle of the two 'mores',  for example: Every day, my wife Luciana gets more  

and more beautiful. Anyway, that's everything  for today. I'm getting hungrier and hungrier, so,  

I've got to go. Bye. Hi everyone, think of 'tell'  and you think of speaking, but 'tell' doesn't  

always mean 'tell' - let me tell you why. OK,  that time I meant speaking. Not only does the verb  

'tell' mean 'say something to someone', it also  has a meaning similar to 'know', 'recognise', 'understand'  

or 'perceive'. We often use it in combination with  the verb 'can' to make 'can tell' for the present,  

and 'could tell' for the past. 'I can tell he's  from France - he has an accent.' Or: 'We could  

tell it was going to rain because of the clouds.'  We often use it to talk about differences. Then,  

we might use the negative or the question: Can you  tell the difference between this cup and that cup?  

I can't tell the difference between this cup and  that cup. We often use 'can tell' with the pronoun  

'you' to talk about something that many people  should find obvious. You can tell he's an English  

teacher - he knows all the answers. Hi, I'm Sam  from BBC learning English, and today we're going  

to look at the difference between 'less' and  'fewer' when comparing things. It's actually  

very simple: we use 'fewer' with countable nouns  and 'less' with uncountable nouns, but even native  

speakers get this wrong, so let's have a look at  some examples: I moved recently and comparing my  

old area to my new neighbourhood, I can say there  are fewer restaurants and fewer cafes, and there  

is less traffic and less pollution, 'Cafes' and  'restaurants' are countable nouns - you can count  

them on your fingers, and you can make them plural  - so we use 'fewer'. 'Pollution' and 'traffic' are  

uncountable nouns - you can't count them on your  fingers, and you can't make them plural - so we  

use 'less'. Hi, I'm Tom, and today I'm going to  show you how to use the future perfect continuous.  

When we use the future perfect continuous, we  imagine ourselves at a point in the future,  

and we then talk about a continuing action which  leads to this point. Let's practice: At the start  

of the next scene, I will have been eating noodles  for five minutes.

See, it's nearly finished.We make this tense  

using 'subject', 'will have been' plus  'verb -ing', for example: At lunch time,  

I will have been working for four hours. And we  can also use 'won't' to make the tense negative.  

Hi, I'm Dan from BBC Learning English, and today  I'm going to tell you something about collective  

nouns. Collective nouns are often called group  nouns - that is because they represent a number  

of things together. Examples are 'government',  'family' and 'team'. So, what's the big deal?  

The special thing about these collective nouns  is that they can be singular or plural. If you  

consider your family to be a group of individuals,  then the pronoun is 'they' and the verb is plural.  

My family are happy. But your family can also  be considered as a single unit - a machine that  

all works together. In this case, the pronoun  is 'it' and the verb is singular. My family is  

happy. This does not apply to all collective  nouns, so be careful: 'police' and 'staff' are  

always plural. Hello, I'm Sam from BBC Learning  English, and today I have a question for you:  

if you study more, do you learn more? You could  answer this question in two different ways.  

One: If I study more, I learn more. Or, two: Yes,  the more I study, the more I learn. The meaning  

is the same - one thing depends on another,  but did you notice we changed the sentence  

structure? Let's have a look together: take 'if'  away, add 'the' to the beginning of both parts  

of the sentence, rearrange the order of the words  so that the comparatives, 'more', two times here,  

are after 'the', and you get: 'the more I study  with BBC Learning English, the more I learn'. Hi,  

I'm Phil, and I'm going to tell you the difference  between 'beside' and 'besides' - that's one small  

letter but it's quite a big difference. 'Beside' with no 's'  is a preposition and we usually use  

it to talk about physical position, so you can  say put the chair beside the table, or come and  

sit beside me - it's like a more formal version of  'next to'. Now, 'besides' with an 's' is either a  

preposition or an adverb, and is often used to  add information: Besides knowing grammar well,  

you need to have a good vocabulary. You should  do something else besides studying. Here,  

it's like 'as well as'. As an adverb, it's often  used to add a more important or stronger point.  

I'm going to practice now because I've got time  and besides I need to. It's like a less formal  

version of 'moreover'. So, besides remembering  that 'beside' is the physical position,  

remember that 'besides' is for adding information.  Let's look at some different ways to use the word  

'flat'. As an adjective, 'flat' can mean 'level'  - something that doesn't go up or down. This table  

is flat. We can also use 'flat' as an adverb - it  refers to something which is lying horizontally.  

This book is lying horizontally or it's lying  flat. When we feel sad or dull or we lack emotion,  

we can say that we feel flat. I feel flat  because I can't go outside today. As a noun,  

a 'flat' is also a place we live - we  could also say 'apartment'. I live in  

a flat in London. We can also use 'flat'  after a period of time to emphasise how  

quickly something can be done. This is a short  video - you can watch it in one minute flat.