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Dear Telekolleg Students,
What wonderful weather we HAVE HAD* in the past few days. I really ENJOY sittING in my garden A few months ago the weather was much worse and I really DISLIKED runNING to the station in the pouring rain every morning – especially as I often FORGOT TO TAKE my umbrella with me. Thank Goodness that my wife usually REMINDS me TO TAKE it!
As you can see, English is sometimes a little confusing (verwirrend): Some verbs take the ‘gerund’ ( a complicated word-it just means: Put an ‘ing’ at the end of the verb: seeING. If there is a consonant at the end, we often double it: : runNING; putTING, etc.The good news is that you just have to learn about a dozen verbs which take the ‘ing’ forms- the rest take an infinitive (or a verb + preposition-more of that later).In the ‘Arbeitsbogen 17-19’ there are also some examples of the gerund (with REMEMBER & STOP) but there is also a new infinitive structure: ‘verb+object+infinitive ‘ (exercise 23-27) which I would like to talk about.
However I’ll stop writING for half an hour: my wife WOULD LIKE ME TO HAVE supper now. She has ASKED ME TO COME down. My son is also here – he’s watching TV and I hope we can PERSUADE HIM TO SWITCH off the TV. We don’t WANT TO WAIT too long FOR HIM TO JOIN us!
As you can see , all these sentences have the same pattern: verb + object + to + infinitive. Very often - as in most of the sentences in the first paragraph of this letter - the ‘object’ is in the form of an ‘object pronoun’ (‘me’, ‘you’, ‘him’, ‘her’, ‘it’, ‘them’) My wife wants (would like/expects/persuaded/told/ invited/ is waiting for) ME TO d o the washing up. This is a very important structure and Germans make mistakes especially when they translate sentences like: Ich will (möchte), dass er geht = I want (would like) HIM TO go. Ich warte darauf, dass er kommt = I’m waiting FOR HIM TO come. Well, dear students, I know that you are expecting ME TO give you a few jokes to make the construction easier to understand. So here goes!

A man wants to buy a canary in a pet shop. He sees that the canary the shop owner has given him has only got one leg.
“Hey, one moment,” he says, “This canary has only got one leg!”
“Well,” the shop owner replies, “do you want IT TO sing, or do you want IT TO dance ?”
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“Do you want to play with our new dog?” Tania asks Robert.
“Does it bite?” Robert asks, rather nervously.
“I don’t know,” says Tania. “I hope I can persuade YOU TO find that out.”

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George is at the barber’s:
“Why is your dog looking at me all the time ?” he asks the barber.
“Well, sir,” the barber replies “he’s waiting for A PIECE OF YOUR EAR TO fall onto the floor.

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The young man asks his father: “Dad, would you like ME TO tell you about my first trip in your car or would you like to read about it in the newspaper tomorrow? ”

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The porter in the hotel wakes the guest up at six o’clock in the morning.
“I asked YOU TO wake me up at eight o’clock, not six o’clock,” says the guest angrily.
“I’m sorry, sir,” says the porter, “but there’s a man in the next room and he wants US TO
make his breakfast.”
“So what!***,” the guest replies.
“Well, sir,” says the porter, “ you’re lying on our only table cloth.”
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Now, dear students, it’s your turn to try and think of twenty other sentences, using the pattern:

I you t o s i n g You invited him t o w o r k hard
He asked her t o b a k e a cake
She would like us t o l e a r n French
We want(s) them t o s w i m
They expect(s) Tom t o s h a v e
Peter is waiting for me etc.
Mary persuaded Agatha etc.

What did you think of the story of Tracy Saunders and Tony Bullimore ? What an incredible (unglaubliche) story! It may be hard to believe, but the story in A BOLT FROM THE BLUE (Arbeitsbogen 17-19) is completely true. As soon as I HAD READ it, I looked up the story in the Internet. Poor Tony Bullimore was five hundred miles from the Antarktis when his boat capsized (kenterte) and he spent four days in an air pocket (Luftloch) in the hull of the boat. Thank Goodness that he HAD MANAGED to send a signal to a navigation satellite at the last minute before his catamaran capsized. As I said, when a ship from the Australian navy found him, he HAD BEEN in the air pocket for four days and he HAD BEEN LIVING only on a few pieces of chocolate and some water. Before he HAD this accident, Tony Bullimore HAD BEEN SAILING for many years and he HAD WON more than 150 trophies. He is still a very successful sailor.Anyway, as you can read, as a result of the accident he managed to get into contact with his daughter – a daughter he HADN’T KNOWN about!
As you can see, dear Telekolleg students, we have some good examples in the above paragraph of the PAST PERFECT and PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS, which come up in Arbeitsbogen 20 - 22 (46- 50) We use both these forms when one action happens in the past before another action: After Bertha HAD EATEN the garlic (Knoblauch) she KISSED her boyfriend. Please don’t follow her example if you wish to keep your partner! Actually, the Germans use a similar form: Nachdem Bertha den Knoblauch GEGESSEN HATTE, KÜSSTE sie ihren Freund. If the action is not finished (HAD BEEN LIVING, HAD BEEN SAILING) then we use the so-called PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS. Anyway, dear students, don’t worry too much about these two forms - it’s usually enough if you can recognise them in a text. If you don’t use the PAST PERFECT or PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS yourself, a speaker of English will still understand you.

Well, dear students, that’s all for now. Once again I wish you lots of pleasure and success in Telekolleg. Don’t forget to go through the Arbeitsbögen and FAST TRACK ENGLISH thoroughly (gründlich) And don’t forget: It’s better to do a little each day than working for hours at the end of each month! Bye for now,
Yours sincerely,
Bernard Brown

22.05.09
 
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