Santis: Thursday, 04 November, 2010: What had you been doing at the time of the murder?

In this lesson, we reviewed our homework from the workbook (I wanted to make sure everyone had arrived at the correct answers), and then we moved on to Lesson 2. In this lesson, we practiced the past perfect, which takes this form:

had + past participle
I had learned to speak French before I moved to France.
Blake hadn't learned to speak French before he moved to Montreal.
John had asked for years to play hockey before Mom and Dad relented and allowed him to.

We also talked about the past perfect with the words "already" and "yet". If the sentence is positive, we can say "already". If the sentence is negative, we can say "yet". You can put "already/yet" between 'had' and the past participle, or you can put it after the object after the past participle. It does not change the meaning, so it's your choice. You can choose a classic and stick with it, or you can mix it up a bit:

I had already gone bungy jumping five times when I decided I wanted to go skydiving.
I had gone bungy jumping five times already when I decided I wanted to go skydiving.

Blake hadn't yet learned any French when he moved to Montreal for university.
Blake hadn't learned any French yet when he moved to Montreal for university.

We often see the past perfect in a sentence, paired with the simple past. When we see sentences like this, the tense is a clue as to which event happened first and which event happened second. The event that appears in the past perfect happened first, and the event that appears in the simple past happens second. There will never be any surprises:

Marie had lived in Korea, Kuwait, and France before she moved to Mongolia.
had lived = past perfect
moved = simple past
So, first Marie lived in Korea, Kuwait, and France, and then (second) she moved to Mongolia.

Things to think about (pronunciation):

excursions --> sounds like "eks-kuhr-geuhns", or, if you can read the IPA, /ɪkˈskɜr

ʒənz/
register --> sounds like "re-ji-stuhr", or, if you can read the IPA, /ˈrɛdʒ

stər/
field --> sounds like "feeld", or, if you can read the IPA, /fild/
title --> sounds like "t-eye-duhl", or, if you can read the IPA, /ˈtaɪt

l/
pronunciation --> sounds like "prah-nun-see-ay-shuhn", or, if you can read the IPA, /prəˌnʌn

siˈeɪ

ʃən/
Vancouver --> you guys all say this one mostly right, but just remember to bite your bottom lip when you pronounce the /v/ part. Don't be shy-- I promise you will not look like an idiot, and the result will be a perfect /v/ sound, so you win all around!

Things to think about (weird English shorthand):

Monday-Friday --> the dash (-) between 'Monday' and 'Friday' should be pronounced as the word "to" when we have to read this out lout, so 'Monday-Friday' is read out loud as "Monday to Friday".
1 1/2 --> this should be read out loud as "one and a half".

Things to think about (new vocabulary):

alibi --> the defense by an accused person of having been elsewhere at the time an alleged offense was committed
suspect --> a person who is believed to be guilty of a crime or offense
remind --> to cause a person to think of or remember something
serve --> act as a waiter; offer or have refreshments available
Dos --> Something you definitely should do
Don'ts --> Something you definitely should not do.

Some Weird Dos and Don'ts Marie found on the Internet: