May your days be merry and bright,

And may all your Christmases be white.

Those words are taken from a traditional Christmas song, White Christmas. Christmas songs and Christmas carols are popular this time of year. Do you know the traditional Christmas carol, Jingle Bells? My favourite is The Christmas Song sung by Nat King Cole because my father loved it and sang it. My son, Nathan,likes to sing Hallelujah which was written by a Canadian singer/ song writer, Leonard Cohen. Another Canadian singer, Katie Lang, sings a current version and has helped to make this older song popular again. According to the Toronto Star, a recent version of Hallelujah hit number one in the British song charts. A popular older version hit number two and Cohen's version made number forty six. Not bad for an old song, but the holidays have people follow tradition and we look to fond memories from our childhood or our children's youth.

So, turn on your radios and get a flavour of the holiday tradition. If you turn on CHFI, 98.1, on Christmas Eve, you will catch Erin Davis's Christmas party. Her daughter and my son will be singing a Christmas carol together. Also, turn on your TV to catch some of those holiday movie classics. Three of my favourites are It's a Wonderful Life from 1946 with the actor, Jimmy Stewart and his angel, and A Christmas Carol with the character, Scrooge, and White Christmas where Bing Crosby sings White Christmas.

Finally, I'd like to leave you with a song sung by an older Bing Crosby and David Bowie. The song is Little Drummer Boy. It sends a message of peace for us all. May you have peace this holiday and find time to spend a moment with someone you love.

Practising Verbs

Verbs are important. They are in every sentence and help to communicate the main idea. In fact, nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs are the most important words in a sentence. We stress these words when we talk, so our speech is clear to the listener. Here's an example.

On Christmas Eve, Santa likes to eat cookies and drink milk, and the reindeer enjoy carrots.

The most important verbs are irregular verbs. These are the verbs that are used the most in the English language. You must memorize the irregular verb forms. The back pages in some grammar books include a list of the irregular verbs in three forms, base form, past form and participle form.

Try the verb, eat. Santa likes to eat cookies. Santa ate cookies last Christmas. Santa has eaten cookies at Christmas for many years.

Memorizing the verb forms is boring, but your spoken and written English accuracy will improve a lot. Maybe you will find this video less boring. You might even enjoy it! This verb list has sound and pictures too. The pictures should help you remember the different verbs, and the sound should help your pronunciation. If you can, try saying the verb forms out loud with the speaker. Try it more than once if you like. Repetition helps you remember. Repeating this exercise more than once a week will help you remember.

Unfortunately, there is one error in this exercise. The voice says, "lead, led, led", but the words say be "lead, lead, lead". The words should say, "lead, led, led".





However, memorizing the verb forms and verb tenses is not enough. You must use them when you talk and write. You must develop an understanding of time. When you become a strong intermediate ESL student, you will be able to change tenses often. Did you notice the last sentence talks about the future and that this sentence is in the present? This is called a shift in time. The next video gives some examples.

Also, this video has a short talk about the Olympics in China that finished this summer. You will recognize the teacher in this video. Jennifer's videos were used in an earlier blog on pronouncing the /th/ sound. This video is a higher level and is suggested for advanced ESL students. Don't worry if you find this a bit difficult. It should teach you that you must be prepared to change your tenses. When you write, edit your sentences for shifts in verb tense. As your ESL level gets higher, changing verb tenses will become easier and more natural.

Tim Hortons

I couldn't resist this video. Have you ever tried to order a coffee? How do you like your coffee? Black? Double, double? Regular? Now, try going to Starbucks. It gets more diffucult to know what to order. Okay, so what is a tall? Ordering a coffee takes on new meaning,doesn't it? According to a Star Bucks's employee, you can order a small, tall, grande (pronounced granday) or venti ( pronounced vahntee). In French, vent means twenty and a venti is twenty ounces. The company doesn't want you to order the smallest size which is the small. The small is not on the menu board and if you ask for a small, the clerk will correct you and suggest a tall. Are you still confused?

Okay, so now you are thinking why is this blog called Tim Hortons? Well, that's because there are so many Tim Hortons in Canada and there are so many Canadians who love Tim Horton's coffee. Tim Horton was a real Canadian hockey star. He started his career as a Maple Leaf hockey player in Toronto. He was still playing hockey in his early forties when he was killed in a car crash February, 1974. His widow eventually sold the coffee franchise, but Canadians continue to line up at the nearest Tim Hortons. There is even a Tim Hortons for the Canadian soldiers in Afghanastan. They requested one because they wanted to feel like they were at home. The next video is a Tim Horton's commercial that takes place in Scotland.






After watching this commercial, can you think of a food or drink that is very popular in your home country? Why do you think it is so popular? Can you get it here?