Showing posts with label Gerunds as Nouns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gerunds as Nouns. Show all posts

Tuesday, 24 March 2026

WELCOME TO LONDON, THE GREAT CUMBERLAND HOTEL

Today, The Morgans & The Grandma have just arrived to London to stay some weeks in the English capital.
They are staying at the Cumberland Hotel, an important place for recent British history that joins London with Sant Boi and Barcelona, and England with Catalonia.

The family has been studying how to compose new nouns using infinitives and -ing or -er, and they have been talking about the origin of the name of Sant Boi.

They have started a new reading and have worked with the W- Pronouns to extract the most important information: Who? What? Where? When? 

More information: Gerunds as Nouns

More information: The Article A/An

Download Scattergories

Great Cumberland Place is a street in the City of Westminster, part of Greater London, England. There is also a hotel bearing the same name on the street.

The street runs from Oxford Street at Marble Arch to George Street at Bryanston Square.

It contains the Western Marble Arch Synagogue, near which stands a statue of Raoul Wallenberg.

Great Cumberland Place is home to The Cumberland Hotel.

The street was the home of Thomas Pinckney while he was the United States ambassador to the Court of St James's.

Sir James Mackintosh lived in Great Cumberland Street, which was later re-numbered as part of Great Cumberland Place.

The residents listed in 1833 were: "Hans Busk, Esq.; Sir Clifford Constable; Sir Frederick Hamilton; Lady C. Underwood; Sir G. Ivison Tapps; Baron Bülow (the Prussian Minister); General Sir R. M'Farlane; Leonard Currie, Esq.; Sir S. B. Fludyer, Bart.; Lady Trollope; Earl of Leitrim; Sir Alexander Johnston; and the Hon. and Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Norwich", and in Great Cumberland Street "Lord Saltoun; Mrs. Portman; John Wells, Esq.; Colonel Sherwood; Captain Richard Manby; John Lodge, Esq.; Major Murray; Robert Cutlar Fergusson, Esq.; John N. McLeod, Esq.; and Lord Bagot".

The explorers James Theodore Bent and Mabel Bent lived first at Number 43 and then Number 13 Great Cumberland Place from the early 1880s until Mabel Bent's death in 1929.

More information: The Cumberland Hotel

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874-24 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. 

Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.

Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to the wealthy Spencer aristocratic family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, later gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns. Elected a Conservative MP in 1900, he defected to the Liberals in 1904. In H. H. Asquith's Liberal government, Churchill served as President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary, championing prison reform and workers' social security.

As First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War, he oversaw the Gallipoli Campaign but, after it proved a disaster, he was demoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He resigned in November 1915 and joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front for six months.

In 1917, he returned to government under David Lloyd George and served successively as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, and Secretary of State for the Colonies, overseeing the Anglo-Irish Treaty and British foreign policy in the Middle East. After two years out of Parliament, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's Conservative government, returning the pound sterling in 1925 to the gold standard at its pre-war parity, a move widely seen as creating deflationary pressure and depressing the UK economy.

Out of government during his so-called wilderness years in the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in calling for British rearmament to counter the growing threat of militarism in Nazi Germany

At the outbreak of the Second World War he was re-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In May 1940, he became Prime Minister, succeeding Neville Chamberlain.

Churchill formed a national government and oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against the Axis powers, resulting in victory in 1945. After the Conservatives' defeat in the 1945 general election, he became Leader of the Opposition. Amid the developing Cold War with the Soviet Union, he publicly warned of an iron curtain of Soviet influence in Europe and promoted European unity. Between his terms as Prime Minister, he wrote several books recounting his experience during the war. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.

He lost the 1950 election, but was returned to office in 1951. His second term was preoccupied with foreign affairs, especially Anglo-American relations and preservation of what remained of the British Empire with India now no longer part of it. Domestically, his government emphasised housebuilding and completed the development of a nuclear weapon (begun by his predecessor). 

In declining health, Churchill resigned as Prime Minister in 1955, remaining an MP until 1964. Upon his death in 1965, he was given a state funeral.

Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the Anglosphere, where he is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending Europe's liberal democracy against the spread of fascism; historians often rank Churchill as the greatest prime minister. His second term received more mixed responses, and he is criticized for some wartime events and also for his imperialist views.

More information: Winston Churchill

 

 I do not at all underrate the severity of the ordeal
which lies before us;
but I believe our countrymen will show themselves
capable of standing up to it,
like the brave men of Barcelona,
and will be able to stand up to it,
and carry on in spite of it,
at least as well as any other people in the world.

Winston Churchill

Wednesday, 22 January 2025

THE WINSORS IN LONDON, KEEP CALM AND LEARN A LOT!

Today, The Winsors & The Grandma have just arrived to London to stay some weeks in the English capital.
They are staying at Cumberland Hotel, an important place for recent British history that joins London with Sant Boi and Barcelona, and England with Catalonia.

Keep calm and learn a lot, Winsors!

The family has been studying how to compose new nouns using infinitives and -ing or -er, the Article A/An, the Adjectives and, the Imperative. 

Finally, they have been talking about the origin of the name of Sant Boi and they have helped Mima Winsor, who has been arrested at London City Airport while she was protesting in a favour of Maori people.

More information: A/An Article

 More information: Imperative I & II

More information: Gerunds as Nouns

Download Scattergories

Play Password

Great Cumberland Place is a street in the City of Westminster, part of Greater London, England. There is also a hotel bearing the same name on the street.

The street runs from Oxford Street at Marble Arch to George Street at Bryanston Square.

It contains the Western Marble Arch Synagogue, near which stands a statue of Raoul Wallenberg.

Great Cumberland Place is home to The Cumberland Hotel.

The street was the home of Thomas Pinckney while he was the United States ambassador to the Court of St James's.

Sir James Mackintosh lived in Great Cumberland Street, which was later re-numbered as part of Great Cumberland Place.

The residents listed in 1833 were: "Hans Busk, Esq.; Sir Clifford Constable; Sir Frederick Hamilton; Lady C. Underwood; Sir G. Ivison Tapps; Baron Bülow (the Prussian Minister); General Sir R. M'Farlane; Leonard Currie, Esq.; Sir S. B. Fludyer, Bart.; Lady Trollope; Earl of Leitrim; Sir Alexander Johnston; and the Hon. and Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Norwich", and in Great Cumberland Street "Lord Saltoun; Mrs. Portman; John Wells, Esq.; Colonel Sherwood; Captain Richard Manby; John Lodge, Esq.; Major Murray; Robert Cutlar Fergusson, Esq.; John N. McLeod, Esq.; and Lord Bagot".

The explorers James Theodore Bent and Mabel Bent lived first at Number 43 and then Number 13 Great Cumberland Place from the early 1880s until Mabel Bent's death in 1929.

More information: The Cumberland Hotel

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874-24 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. 

Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.

Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to the wealthy Spencer aristocratic family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, later gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns. Elected a Conservative MP in 1900, he defected to the Liberals in 1904. In H. H. Asquith's Liberal government, Churchill served as President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary, championing prison reform and workers' social security.

As First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War, he oversaw the Gallipoli Campaign but, after it proved a disaster, he was demoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He resigned in November 1915 and joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front for six months.

In 1917, he returned to government under David Lloyd George and served successively as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, and Secretary of State for the Colonies, overseeing the Anglo-Irish Treaty and British foreign policy in the Middle East. After two years out of Parliament, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's Conservative government, returning the pound sterling in 1925 to the gold standard at its pre-war parity, a move widely seen as creating deflationary pressure and depressing the UK economy.

Out of government during his so-called wilderness years in the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in calling for British rearmament to counter the growing threat of militarism in Nazi Germany

At the outbreak of the Second World War he was re-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In May 1940, he became Prime Minister, succeeding Neville Chamberlain.

Churchill formed a national government and oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against the Axis powers, resulting in victory in 1945. After the Conservatives' defeat in the 1945 general election, he became Leader of the Opposition. Amid the developing Cold War with the Soviet Union, he publicly warned of an iron curtain of Soviet influence in Europe and promoted European unity. Between his terms as Prime Minister, he wrote several books recounting his experience during the war. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.

He lost the 1950 election, but was returned to office in 1951. His second term was preoccupied with foreign affairs, especially Anglo-American relations and preservation of what remained of the British Empire with India now no longer part of it. Domestically, his government emphasised housebuilding and completed the development of a nuclear weapon (begun by his predecessor). 

In declining health, Churchill resigned as Prime Minister in 1955, remaining an MP until 1964. Upon his death in 1965, he was given a state funeral.

Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the Anglosphere, where he is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending Europe's liberal democracy against the spread of fascism; historians often rank Churchill as the greatest prime minister. His second term received more mixed responses, and he is criticized for some wartime events and also for his imperialist views.

More information: Winston Churchill

 I do not at all underrate the severity of the ordeal
which lies before us;
but I believe our countrymen will show themselves
capable of standing up to it,
like the brave men of Barcelona,
and will be able to stand up to it,
and carry on in spite of it,
at least as well as any other people in the world.

Winston Churchill

Thursday, 1 February 2024

WELCOME TO LONDON, THE GREAT CUMBERLAND HOTEL

Today, The Fosters & The Grandma have just arrived to London to stay some weeks in the English capital. They are staying at the Cumberland Hotel, an important place for recent British history that joins London with Sant Boi and Barcelona, and England with Catalonia.

Keep calm and carry on, Fosters!

The family has been studying how to compose new nouns using infinitives and -ing or -er, and they have been talking about the origin of the name of Sant Boi.

More information: Gerunds as Nouns

Download Nationalities

Download Scattergories

Great Cumberland Place is a street in the City of Westminster, part of Greater London, England. There is also a hotel bearing the same name on the street.

The street runs from Oxford Street at Marble Arch to George Street at Bryanston Square.

It contains the Western Marble Arch Synagogue, near which stands a statue of Raoul Wallenberg.

Great Cumberland Place is home to The Cumberland Hotel.

The street was the home of Thomas Pinckney while he was the United States ambassador to the Court of St James's.

Sir James Mackintosh lived in Great Cumberland Street, which was later re-numbered as part of Great Cumberland Place.

The residents listed in 1833 were: "Hans Busk, Esq.; Sir Clifford Constable; Sir Frederick Hamilton; Lady C. Underwood; Sir G. Ivison Tapps; Baron Bülow (the Prussian Minister); General Sir R. M'Farlane; Leonard Currie, Esq.; Sir S. B. Fludyer, Bart.; Lady Trollope; Earl of Leitrim; Sir Alexander Johnston; and the Hon. and Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Norwich", and in Great Cumberland Street "Lord Saltoun; Mrs. Portman; John Wells, Esq.; Colonel Sherwood; Captain Richard Manby; John Lodge, Esq.; Major Murray; Robert Cutlar Fergusson, Esq.; John N. McLeod, Esq.; and Lord Bagot".

The explorers James Theodore Bent and Mabel Bent lived first at Number 43 and then Number 13 Great Cumberland Place from the early 1880s until Mabel Bent's death in 1929.

More information: The Cumberland Hotel

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874-24 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. 

Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.

Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire to the wealthy Spencer aristocratic family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British India, the Anglo-Sudan War, and the Second Boer War, later gaining fame as a war correspondent and writing books about his campaigns. Elected a Conservative MP in 1900, he defected to the Liberals in 1904. In H. H. Asquith's Liberal government, Churchill served as President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary, championing prison reform and workers' social security.

As First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War, he oversaw the Gallipoli Campaign but, after it proved a disaster, he was demoted to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He resigned in November 1915 and joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front for six months.

In 1917, he returned to government under David Lloyd George and served successively as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, and Secretary of State for the Colonies, overseeing the Anglo-Irish Treaty and British foreign policy in the Middle East. After two years out of Parliament, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin's Conservative government, returning the pound sterling in 1925 to the gold standard at its pre-war parity, a move widely seen as creating deflationary pressure and depressing the UK economy.

Out of government during his so-called wilderness years in the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in calling for British rearmament to counter the growing threat of militarism in Nazi Germany

At the outbreak of the Second World War he was re-appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. In May 1940, he became Prime Minister, succeeding Neville Chamberlain.

Churchill formed a national government and oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against the Axis powers, resulting in victory in 1945. After the Conservatives' defeat in the 1945 general election, he became Leader of the Opposition. Amid the developing Cold War with the Soviet Union, he publicly warned of an iron curtain of Soviet influence in Europe and promoted European unity. Between his terms as Prime Minister, he wrote several books recounting his experience during the war. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.

He lost the 1950 election, but was returned to office in 1951. His second term was preoccupied with foreign affairs, especially Anglo-American relations and preservation of what remained of the British Empire with India now no longer part of it. Domestically, his government emphasised housebuilding and completed the development of a nuclear weapon (begun by his predecessor). 

In declining health, Churchill resigned as Prime Minister in 1955, remaining an MP until 1964. Upon his death in 1965, he was given a state funeral.

Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the Anglosphere, where he is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending Europe's liberal democracy against the spread of fascism; historians often rank Churchill as the greatest prime minister. His second term received more mixed responses, and he is criticized for some wartime events and also for his imperialist views.

More information: Winston Churchill

 I do not at all underrate the severity of the ordeal
which lies before us;
but I believe our countrymen will show themselves
capable of standing up to it,
like the brave men of Barcelona,
and will be able to stand up to it,
and carry on in spite of it,
at least as well as any other people in the world.

Winston Churchill

Wednesday, 26 February 2020

THE WATSONS, A NEW FAMILY IN SANT BOI DE LLOBREGAT

The Grandma always returns to Sant Boi
Today, The Grandma has arrived to Sant Boi de Llobregat to start a new English course with a new family, The Watsons.

Sant Boi de Llobregat is a town of 82,142 inhabitants in the Barcelona province in Catalonia, located aside the Llobregat river.

Though the main business activity is centred in the trading and service sector, Sant Boi also has a remarkable industrial activity, especially for metallurgy; agriculture is stimulated by the fertile alluvial lands at the mouth of Llobregat river and a mild climate, producing a wide variety of vegetables like the famous Llobregat's delta artichokes.

The finding of archeological remains corresponding to Iberian colonies (VI-I bC) and the Romans (I-V aC) - a noteworthy Roman bath is located near the river -suggests that the origins of Sant Boi can be found in pre-Roman times.

Like most of the surrounding lands, from the 8th to the 11th century the town was controlled by the Moors, until their expulsion from Iberia during the Reconquista. The Moors called it Alcala, which means castle, due to the existence of a hillock from where the river and the valley were dominated.


During the Middle Ages the village was progressively populated, growing from the surroundings of the castle to adjacent zones. A baroque-style church was built during the 16th century. The growth kept on during the following centuries, giving rise to numerous Masies, typical Catalan agricultural housing, near the river and the most fertile lands. At the end of the 19th century Sant Boi was a village of nearly 5000 inhabitants, with an economy mainly based in agriculture.

At the beginnings of the 20th century the first industries flourished in Sant Boi, ranging from brick manufacture to metalwork. With the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 there is a massive inflow of immigration coming from diverse points of the Spanish geography. These flows of population consisted mainly in people from villages and small towns searching a job and career opportunities in the town of Barcelona, stimulated by the increasing demand of workmanship in the regrowth of the Catalan industry during the post-war period.

More information: Catalunya

The population rises from 10.000 people in 1940 to 65.000 in 1975. This period is characterized by the construction of complete quarters (Casablanca, Camps Blancs, Cooperativa) dedicated to housing for the immigration.

The Grandma with some nice old British friends
Nowadays Sant Boi is a town with more than 80,000 inhabitants, with well-established industrial and services sectors, and a healthy cultural and recreational offer. The town is divided into six districts: Ciutat Cooperativa-Molí Nou, Marianao-Can Paulet, Barri Centre, Vinyets-Molí Vell, Camps Blancs-Canons-Orioles and Casablanca.

It borders to the north with the towns of Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Sant Joan Despí and the village of Sant Climent de Llobregat, to the east with the town of Cornellà de Llobregat, to the west with Viladecans and to the south with El Prat de Llobregat, having a narrow land extension to the south that enters into the Mediterranean Sea.

More information: Fem Turisme

The Watsons are a family integrated by twelve nice young European women who want to improve their English and who have worked very hard on their first day.

It is always a great pleasure to return to Sant Boi where The Grandma has wonderful old friends. She has met MJ again and they have been talking about this new course.

After introductions, The Grandma has started to talk about the course and The Watsons have studied the Imperative, how to convert Infinitives to Nouns (Gerunds) and the article A/An. They have also studied which is the correct order of the adjectives in English.

They have created some profiles and they have written a password game to play during the next days. Finally, after a little listening about the origin of the name of Sant Boi and the importance of the Roman baths, they have played with the bomb, one of The Grandma's favourite games.

It has been a nice wonderful short day!

More information: Imperative I, II, III & IV

More information: Gerunds as Nouns

More information: A/An Article

More information: Order of Adjectives I & II


Roman civilization had achieved,
within the bounds of its technology,
relatively as great a mastery of time
and space as we have achieved today.

Arthur Erickson