F2F Class Notes (Ben)

Grammar

I guess = I think // They don’t change anything about the tense.

WILL = sure
tomorrow, in the future, next week, one day, when I’m old, when I change jobs

WOULD =
1. unsure, dream
if I were Obama, if I knew Trump, if we divorced (but we don’t plan to do it!),

• What will you do tomorrow?
  – I think I will see my friends.
  – I guess I will see my friends.
• What would you want to do if you were Xi Jinping?
  – I think I would open the country.
  – I guess I would open the country.

2. repetition in the past (a bit like used to)
When I was a child, I would / I used to go to school at 8 am.

Pay attention to tenses – they can change the meaning of a sentence.
Misunderstandings between Chinese people and foreigners often come from the use of different tenses.

• Did you finish everything? => PAST = already
• When we receive the invoices, we go to the bank. And the bank asks us to fill in a form. And we call the customer and ………. So it’s ok. => PRESENT = usually, every month, in general

-> In this situation, the answer was very long but it was in the present, whereas the question was in the past. As a result, I still don’t understand if it’s a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.

Vocabulary

scalp = to buy something to resell it at a higher price
Ticket scalping at concerts is illegal.
Ticket scalpers drive the price up for everyone.

abroad = in another country
Many people buy milk powder from abroad.