Non-verbal communication

The verbs are the parts of the speech that describe the action, the existence or the state of the subject. The verbs are usually inflected. This means that they can take different forms, depending on the person of the subject (first, second or third person), the number (singular or plural) and the tense, which describes how and when the action takes place.

The present tenses are those which are used to refer to the present. There are two present tenses: the present simple and the present continuous.

The present simple is used to express a regular, habitual action. It also describes permanent states and universal truths. The present simple usually appears in the sentence with adverbials of time that indicate regular actions, like “everyday”, “once a week”, “on Sundays”, etc. The verbs in present simple are also used with the adverbs of frequency.

Unlike Catalan and Spanish, and the Romanic languages in general, the conjugation of the English verbs is very simple. The verb “to be” has three different forms in the present simple, but the greatest majority of the other verbs only have two forms. If you compare the conjugation of any English verb with all the different forms of the Catalan verbs, you will see the simplicity of the English verb system.

The following table shows the conjugation of the verb “work” in present simple:

Notice the following:

• In the third person singular, that is, when the subject is “he”, “she” or “it” (or a noun in the third person singular), the verbs in present simple add an -s. All the other forms are the same as the base form.
• The present simple forms the negative and the interrogative with the auxiliary “do”, which takes the form “does” in the third person singular. With the auxiliary “do”, the verb is always in the infinitive.

Now let’s see some examples of the use of the present simple.

1. Habitual actions:
   • I get up at seven o’clock everyday. (Cat: Em llevo a les set cada dia)
   • John plays tennis on Sundays. (Cat: John juga al tennis els diumenges)
   • We never smoke at work. (Cat: No fumem mai a la feina)
   • My friend always helps me (Cat: El meu amic sempre m’ajuda)
2. Permanent states:
   • Australia is a very big country. (Cat: Austràlia és un país molt gran)
   • Poor Mary has got a serious problem. (Cat: La pobra Mary té un problema seriós)
3. Universal truths:
   • The sun rises in the east. (Cat: El sol surt per l’est)
   • Water boils at 100ºC. (Cat: L’aigua bull als 100ºC)

The present continuous form is used to express an action that is taking place at the moment of speaking. It is also used for temporary actions, that is, actions that take place only for a certain period of time. Compare this use with the present simple, which expresses permanent actions. For all this, the present continuous usually appears with adverbials like “now”, “at this moment”, “at present”, “this week”, etc., adverbials which indicate that the action is either taking place at the moment or is temporary.

The present continuous is a compound verb. The structure is:

• AUXILIARY “BE” (in present) + VERB ENDING IN -ING

The table below shows the conjugation of the verb “work” in the present continuous.

Here are some examples of the use of the present continuous:

1. Actions taking place at the moment of speaking:
   • Look! It is snowing. (Cat: Mira! Està nevant)
   • I think that they are speaking Russian. (Cat: Crec que estan parlant rus)
   • We are not doing anything now. (Cat: Ara no estem fent res)
2. Temporary actions:
   • Sarah usually lives in London, but she is living in Boston this month. (Cat: Sarah normalment viu a Londres, però aquest mes està vivint a Boston)
   • I always go to work by car, but I am taking the bus this week. (Cat: Sempre vaig a treballar amb cotxe, però aquesta setmana agafo l’autobús)

Notice the contrast between the present simple and the present continuous in the two last examples. The sentence in present simple indicates what the subject does regularly whereas the sentence in the present continuous indicates a temporary action, one which only takes place that month or that week.

In English the present continuous is more widely used than in Catalan. Notice how in the last example above, the present continuous tense is translated with the present simple.

Frequency adverbs are those which indicate the frequency of an action. They answer questions with the interrogative pronoun “How often…?” (Cat: Amb quina freqüència…?)

Here is a list of the most important frequency adverbs in descending order of frequency (from highest to lowest):

• Always (Cat: sempre)
• Usually (Cat: normalment)
• Often (Cat: sovint)
• Sometimes (Cat: algunes vegades)
• Seldom (Cat: poques vegades)
• Never (Cat: mai)

Apart from these adverbs, there are some adverbial expressions which are also used to indicate the frequency of an action. For example:

• Once, twice, three times a week (Cat: una, dues, tres vegades a la setmana)
• Everyday (Cat: cada dia)
• Every year (Cat: cada any)
• From time to time (Cat: de tant en tant)

All these adverbs and adverbial expressions usually appear in sentences with the verb in the present simple because they express the idea that the action takes place at regular intervals.

When using a frequency adverb it is very important to place them in their right position within the sentence. In general, the frequency adverbs are placed after the modal and auxiliary verbs and before all the other verbs. The adverbial expressions are placed at the beginning or at the end of the sentence.

The only exception to the rule is the adverb “sometimes”, which can go at the beginning, in the middle (after modal verbs and before all the other verbs) or at the end of the sentence. For example:

Sometimes he speaks very fast / He sometimes speaks very fast / He speaks very fast sometimes (Cat: De vegades parla molt de pressa)

Notice that in Catalan the position of the adverbs is much more flexible than in English.

Here are some more examples of the use of frequency adverbs and adverbial expressions:

• He always arrives late (Cat: Sempre arriba tard)
• He can never do the shopping (Cat: no pot fer mai la compra)
• He is usually at home in the mornings (Cat: Normalment és a casa als matins)
• They seldom use the typewriter (Cat: Poques vegades utilitzen la màquina d’escriure)
• Frank works at home twice a week (Cat: Frank treballa a casa dues vegades a la setmana)
• From time to time, I like eating out (Cat: De tant en tant m’agrada menjar a fora)

In writing, it is very important to use connectors in order to link the different sentences together and give internal cohesion to the text. A text without connectors is sometimes hard to read and does not transmit the ideas clearly because without connectors the ideas are not related to each other and, therefore, part of the information is missed. However, an excessive use of connectors may alter the fluency of a text. We can combine connectors and punctuation marks to link the different ideas and create fluent, well-written texts.

Connectors are words that link ideas and show how these ideas are related to one another in the text. They help you organize your written texts and make them easy for the reader to understand them.

Next you will find a list of English connectors and their Catalan equivalents. They are classified according to the logical relationship between sentences or parts of a sentence. We have also added an example of their use.

Positive addition:

• And - i (‘I like reading and listening to music’)
• As well as - així com (també) (‘I play football as well as handball’)
• Also / too / as well - també (‘He likes music. - I also like music / I like music, too. / I like music as well’.)
• Besides / Moreover / In addition - a més a més (‘It rained all the time. Besides, it was cold. / Moreover, it was cold. / In addition, it was cold’.)

Negative addition:

• Or - ni (‘I don’t like getting up early or going out at night’)
• Neither … nor - ni … ni (‘We neither went to work nor stayed at home’)
• Either - tampoc (‘He doesn’t like music - I don’t like it either’)

Disjunctive conjunctions

• Or - o - (‘Do you prefer red or green?’)
• Either … or - o… o (‘I like it either red or green, but not blue’)

Condition:

• If - si (‘I will help you if you want’)
• Unless - a menys que, si no (‘We can eat outside unless it’s very cold’)

Contrast:

• But - però (‘It’s quite good but very cheap’)
• However - malgrat tot, no obstant (‘It’s quite good. However, it’s very cheap’)
• Although / even though - tot i que, encara que (‘It’s quite good although/even though it’s very cheap.’)
• In spite of - malgrat (‘In spite of the rain, we had a great time’)
• While / whereas - mentre que (‘In the morning it was fine whereas/while in the evening it rained very hard’)
• On the other hand - per altra banda (‘I was tired. On the other hand, I had not eaten anything’)
• On the one hand … on the other hand - per una banda … i per l’altra ('On the one hand, I was tired. On the other hand, I had not eaten anything’)
• On the contrary - Al contrari (‘It was not cold. On the contrary, we were very hot all the time’)

Exception:

• Except for - excepte, llevat de (‘I finished them all except for two or three / Except for two or three, I finished them all’)
• Apart from - a part de (‘Apart from Tom, nobody came to the party / Nobody came to the party apart from Tom’)

Explaining ideas:

• That is to say / That is - és a dir (‘It was snow white, that is to say, very white’)
• In other words - en altres paraules (‘It was snow white. In other words, it was very white’)

Giving examples:

• Like - com (‘We saw many wild animals like foxes and rabbits’)
• Such as - com ara (‘We saw many wild animals such as foxes and rabbits’)
• For example - per exemple (‘We saw many wild animals. For example, foxes and rabbits.’)
• As for example - com per exemple (‘We saw many wild animals as for example foxes and rabbits’)

Describing similarity:

• Similarly - de manera semblant (‘I wrote a report. Similarly, John wrote all the letters we had to send.’)
• In the same way - de la mateixa manera (‘I wrote a report. In the same way, John wrote all the letters we had to send.’)

Listing ideas:

• At first / firstly / In the first place / to begin with / first of all - primerament, en primer lloc, per començar, abans de res (At first, /Firstly, /In the first place, /To begin with, /First of all, I got up.)
• Secondly / After this / Next / Then - en segon lloc, després d’això, a continuació, aleshores (Secondly, /After this, /Next, /Then, I had breakfast.)
• Finally / in the end - finalment, al final (Finally, /In the end, I went to work.)

Time:

• When - quan (‘He called me when I wasn’t at home.’)
• Whenever - sempre que (‘You can come whenever you want.’)
• As soon as - tan aviat com, així que (‘Please call me as soon as you arrive home.’)
• While - mentre (‘I was trying to concentrate while he was playing the drums.’)
• Meanwhile - mentrestant (‘He was playing the drums. Meanwhile, I was trying to concentrate.’)
• Before - abans de (‘Please turn off the lights before leaving the office/…before you leave the office.’)
• After (prep.) - després de (‘We went out after the rain.’)
• Afterwards (adv.) - després, a continuació (‘It stopped raining. Afterwards, we went out.’)
• Then - aleshores (‘It stopped raining. Then, we went out.’)
• Since - des que (‘I’ve been waiting since I arrived this morning’)
• until - fins a (‘I’ll wait until you come.’)

Purpose:

• To / in order to - per tal de, per a (‘I went out to / in order to see the Carnival parade.’)
• In order not to - per a no (‘I didn’t go to work in order not to meet Jane.’)

Reason and cause:

• As - com que, ja que (‘As it was raining, we stayed at home.’)
• Because - perquè (‘We stayed at home because it was raining.’)
• Because of / Due to - a causa de, degut a (‘We stayed at home because of / due to the rain.’)
• As a result of - Com a conseqüència de (‘As a result of the rain, we stayed at at home / We stayed at home as a result of the rain’.)

Result:

• So - per tant, així que, de manera que (‘It was raining so we stayed at home.’)
• Therefore - en conseqüència, per tant (‘It was raining. Therefore, we stayed at home.’)
• For this reason - per aquesta raó (‘It was raining. For this reason, we stayed at home.)

Summarising:

• In conclusion - en conclusió (‘We spent everything we had. In conclusion, we have no money for you.’)
• In short - en resum, en poques paraules (‘We spent everything we had. In short, we have no money for you.’)
• To sum up / summing up - resumint (‘We spent all the money we had. To sum up,/Summing up, we have no money for you.’)

All these connectors are used much in the same way as their Catalan equivalents. As you read a text in English, you should study the connectors carefully and see how they are used.

Apart from connectors, when you are writing a text it is also important to consider the punctuation marks and use them correctly. You should remember that punctuation also includes the use of capital letters, which in English are used differently from Catalan and Spanish. Punctuation marks seem unimportant and we do not usually pay much attention to writing commas or stops, but they contribute to give cohesion to the text, so we should use them carefully and combine them with the connectors. We are going to give some tips to produce a coherent text and to explain the most important uses of the punctuation marks.

First of all, try to write short sentences in order to keep the word order more easily. As you advance in your knowledge of English, you can write longer and more sophisticated sentences, but at first it is advisable to write simple sentences. You should organise your text into different paragraphs to separate the different blocks of information. As with sentences, you should avoid long paragraphs. Each paragraph should refer to the same idea or to secondary ideas related to the main one.

As for punctuation, remember the following:

• Do not write a comma (,) between the subject and the verb although the subject is very long.
• Write a full stop (.) at the end of a sentence. If the sentence ends with a question mark (?) or with an exclamation mark (!), then you must not write the full stop.
• Adverbials and connectors at the beginning of a sentence are usually separated from the sentence by a comma. Example: Nowadays, computers are very fast. / In the first place, click on the program icon.
• Write a colon (:) to introduce a list of items or an explanation. Example: the continents are: Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Oceania.
• Write a comma to separate the elements in a list, except those separated by “and” or “or”. Example: the days of the week are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
• Use the semi-colon (;) to separate the groups of items in a list. Example: In computing we must distinguish between hardware and software. Hardware refers to the material parts of a computer (keyboard, monitor, printer, loudspeakers, etc.); software refers to programming and includes operating systems, compilers, editors, etc.
• Use the brackets to add some extra information to a sentence. Example: Websites usually have a home page (a beginning page).
• Write a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence or after a full stop.

We write a summary to explain the main ideas of a text in a few sentences.

When writing a summary, we should remember the following:

• Only include the most important information.
• Do not include information that is not important, as for example, details, direct speech, examples to illustrate the ideas, etc.
• Do not express your own opinion or add information that is not in the text.

As in everything else, writing a good summary requires some practice. Here are some ideas to help you:

• First of all, read the text to get a general idea of its contents.
• Read the text again and underline the three or four most important ideas.
• Without looking at the text again, write a few sentences about the text from memory. Try to use alternative words.
• Read the text again and check your summary. Make sure that you have included all the important information and that you have not copied from the text.
• If you think that the summary is too long, cut out the unnecessary details.

Here is some useful language that you can use in your summaries:

• Connectors to express contrast: In spite of, despite, although, however.
• Connectors to add information: In addition, also, too.
• Connectors to express reason and result: This is so because, because, so, therefore.
• Relative clauses: The film, which is about a safari, shows that… The statement that he gave in March is no longer true.

Here is an example of a summary.