Information Sheet 3.1-1
Information Sheet 3.1-1: Applying Characters, Prices and Numbers in Conversation
Characters, prices and numbers in conversation
Originally these conversation topics and their questions were designed for English learning activities but they have since evolved to become a comprehensive list that can be used by all English speakers. They can be used amongst friends, family, work colleagues, dating partners, and anybody who just wants something to chinwag about.
Personality conversation questions
Personality is a fun speaking topic for teenagers and adults. We all have different characters and temperaments which is what makes us individuals. You can use these personality discussion questions to find out what people think about themselves and the nature of others.
For English language learners, the most difficult terms in this activity include – associate, traits, depending on, generous, financially, avoid, positive, optimistic, attitude, and surrounded.
The personality conversation questions are –
1 – What kinds of words do you associate with the word personality?
2 – How would you describe your own personality? What are your best personality traits?
3 – Is there anything about your personality that you would like to change? Why?
4 – What kinds of people do you usually make friends with? What is your best friend like?
5 – Does your personality change depending on the weather? What weather is best?
6 – Are you a generous person? When was the last time you gave something to a person?
7 – Has your personality changed much as you have gotten older? How has it changed?
8 – What kind of personality traits can help people become financially successful?
9 – Is your personality more similar to your father’s or your mother’s? In what ways?
10- What kinds of things bring you happiness? What are some things you are afraid of?
11- Who is the kindest person that you know? What things do they do to show kindness?
12- How do you think we get our personalities? Are we born with personality traits?
13- What types of people do you usually try to avoid? Why do you stay away from them?
14- If you were to marry someone, what personality would you want them to have?
15- Would you say that you are a creative or artistic person? Why or why not?
16- How would you describe the people in your country to a foreign visitor?
17- Do you have any brothers or sisters? If so, what are their personalities like?
18- Who is the most adventurous person that you know? What things have they done?
19- How do you think that a confident person’s life can be different from a shy person’s?
20- Does your personality change depending on who you are with? Give some examples.
21- What could you do to make yourself have a more positive and optimistic attitude?
22- Do you prefer to be surrounded by lots of people, a few people, or be alone?
23- What kind of personality is best suited to your dream job? Does this describe you?
24- How would you describe the personality of your country’s leader? Do you like it?
25- How many different types of personality traits can you name in 30 seconds?
Sample Dialogue
A: Have you seen the new girl in school?
B: No, I haven’t.
A: She’s really pretty.
B: Describe her to me.
A: She’s not too tall.
B: Well, how tall is she?
A: She’s about five feet even.
B: What does she look like, though?
A: She has pretty light brown eyes.
B: I may know which girl you’re talking about.
A: So you have seen her around?
B: Yes, I have.
Numbers conversation questions
Numbers, we are surrounded by them both in daily life and in nature. These numbers conversation questions can be used at just about any time for a fun English discussion activity.
The most difficult terms on this speaking worksheet include – story, lottery, culture, numerology, currency, prime numbers, ordinal numbers, and stranger (noun).
The numbers conversation questions are –
- Do you have a lucky number? What is your favorite number and why?
- What number house or apartment do you live at? which story do you live on?
- What numbers do you keep in your memory? What are these numbers about?
- Are you good with numbers? Did you enjoy studying math at school?
- What kinds of games do you know of that are all about numbers?
- Do you ever buy lottery tickets? Do you pick the numbers by yourself?
- Are there numbers in your culture that have special meanings? What do they mean?
- What is the last number that you used today? Why did you use it?
- What do you think about numerology? Have you ever tried it? What did it say?
- On which day and year where you born? In which year did you start going to school?
- Did you choose your own telephone number? What numbers are in it that you like?
- What numbers does your home country’s currency come in?
- What numbers can you see in the room you are sitting in right now?
- Are there any numbers that you often check or things that you measure? Why?
- Do you answer phone calls that come from unknown numbers? Why or why not?
- What is the number of people living in your town or city? How about your country?
- Are there any numbers that you think are unlucky? How do you try to avoid them?
- How many kilometers or miles have you walked today? Where did you go?
- What kinds of jobs require people to work with numbers? Would you like this work?
- Do you know what prime numbers and ordinal numbers are? Can you explain them?
- What is a number that you would never tell a stranger? Why not?
- Do you think that any special numbers are powerful? Why do you think so?
- Can you count in any other languages? How did you learn these numbers?
- What is your favorite song about numbers? Who wrote or performs the music?
Idioms about numbers
There are a huge amount of English idioms that use or contain numbers. Here are a few that use the word number. You can discuss or introduce these once your class has completed the numbers conversation questions.
If you crunch the numbers, you do the math on something. More often than not this saying is used in relation to money.
In the UK and Australia, a very easy job can be described as a cushy number.
A person or thing whose days are numbered will not live or last much longer.
To do a number on someone means to either cheat or hurt them. Somebody who looks out for number one only takes care of themselves and doesn’t think about others.
Here’s an example of a conversation you can have with someone and asking each other phone number:
Jane: “Hi John! It’s been a long time!”
John: “Oh hi, Jane! How are you doing?”
Jane: “I’m doing good. Just a little tired from work yesterday. How about you?”
John: “I’m fine. What are you up to today?”
Jane: “Just shopping with my mom for groceries. What about you?”
John: “Me too. I need to buy food for a party this weekend.”
John: Do you mind if I ask for your phone number? I’d love to keep in touch.
Jane: Not at all, John. Here’s my number.
Jane gives John her phone number and then asks,
Jane: How about you, John? May I have your phone number too?
John: Absolutely! Here you go.
John gives Jane his phone number and they both smile.
John: I look forward to staying in touch, Jane.
Jane: Same here, John. Have a great day!
John: You too, Jane!
Money & Prices
Talking about money and prices is an important part of everyday language. Here we can learn how to talk about money and prices
What Do We Mean by Money and Price?
Money is a type of currency that is used to buy goods and services. Price is the amount of money that is needed to buy goods or services.
How to Ask About Money and Prices
To ask about money, questions like: ‘how much is this/that’ or ‘how much are these/those…?’ can be used. These questions can be answered using ‘it’s/they’re….’. For example:
How much is the book? It’s 10 dollars.
How much are these pens? They’re 50 dollars.
How to Read Prices
Different structures can be used to read the price of an item. These are the most common ways:
$4.60 → four-sixty
You can just say the numbers.
$4.60 → four dollars sixty
You can say the number + dollars and the number after the decimal point.
$4.60 → four dollars and sixty cents
You can say the number + dollars + ‘and’ + decimal number + cents.
Tip!
When a price is an exact number, it can be read as the number + dollars/pounds/euros/etc...
$200 → two hundred dollars
$80 → eighty dollars
A: I am really interested in buying this television.
B: That’s great!
A: How much are you selling it for?
B: This t.v is $2500.
A: You can’t be serious.
B: That’s how much this t.v costs.
A: That’s too expensive for me.
B: This television is of very high quality.
A: You can’t go down on the price.
B: By how much?
A: I’ll buy it for $2000.
B: I’m sorry, but the price is final.
Homonyms
A homonym is a word that has the same sound or spelling as another but a different meaning. Homonyms can be separated into two groups, homographs (same spelling) and homophones (same sound).
What are Homonyms?
Homonyms are words sounding alike but have different meanings. They may or may not be spelled the same. For example, the word fair is spelled and pronounced the same for three words with three different meanings. We may talk about a girl with a fair appearance going to see the county fair. She paid a fair price to get into the fair. The words buy, by, and bye are also homonyms.
What are Homophones?
Homophones are types of homonyms. These words sound alike, but they have different meanings and spellings. Anytime my students take a dictation test, a significant number will write, they’re beaches on the island instead of There are beaches on the island. This is because They’re and there sound the same. If the students understood the grammatical functions of, They’re and there, they would not make this mistake. Many other pupils have difficulty distinguishing between where, we’re, were, and wear that all sound the same but have different meanings.
What are Homographs?
Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. These words may have the same or different sounds. For example, the word, a tear in her eye, and tear down the house are homographs. In this situation, tear as a noun and tear as a verb are spelled the same, pronounced differently, and have different meanings.
Citing another example, a birthday present and to present my friend to my mother indicate the use of present as both a noun and a verb. The pronunciations are different because when present is used as a noun, the stress is on the first syllable of the word. When present is used as a verb, the stress is on the second syllable of the word. Students should be taught the rule that for two-syllable words used as both nouns and verbs, the stress is on the first syllable for nouns and the second syllable for verbs.
Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs
| Homonyms | Homophones | Homographs |
| ate – eight | aloud – allowed | read – read |
| fair – fare | plain – plane | bass – bass |
| by – buy – bye | son – sun | a tear – to tear |
| see – sea | one – won | a sow – to sow |
| It’s – its | dear – deer | close – to close |
| bough – bow | sail – sale | a bow – to bow |
| lead – led | where – wear | a present – to present |
| write – right | which – witch | a row – to row |
| a lie – to lie down | night – knight | a lie – to lie |
| red – read (past tense) | blew – blue | a record – to record |
| to – too – two | bored – board | a select – to select |
| they’re – their – there | whose – who’s | a reject – to reject |
| We’re – were | been – bin | a return – to return |
| four – for | been – ben | wind – to wind |
| a fair – to fair | close – clothes | a rebel – to rebel |
| flower – flour | be – bee | a desert – to desert |
| hear – here | hair – hare | a button – to button |
| seen – scene | sent – scent | a review – to review |
| a saw – saw (past tense) | a rose – rose (past tense) | a report – to report |
| meat – meet | rode – road | a consent – to consent |
Rules of syllabication
All words have at least one syllable. When you know how to divide words into you can improve your spelling and reading skills as well as your ability to pronounce words correctly.
What is a syllable? A syllable is a single segment of unbroken sound that has one vowel sound, a diphthong or a syllabic consonant. It may or may not be surrounded by consonants.
Examples
- a → a (1 syllable)
- bread → bread (1 syllable)
- female → fe-male (2 syllables)
- bicycle* → bi-cy-cle (3 syllables)
- interesting → in-ter-est-ing (4 syllables)
* Note the consonant “y” is not strictly a vowel but behaves like one.
Seven rules to divide words into syllables
Rule # 1
A syllable is formed by at least one vowel (a, e, i, o, u).
For example: a, the, plant, ba-na-na, chil-dren, cam-er-a.
Exceptions:
a) Silent e is not counted as a vowel in a syllable.
For example: tape, like, love, ex-treme, take, blue.
b) When two vowels carry one sound (diphthong), they cannot be divided.
For example: coin, loud, bread, moon, sound, beau-ti-ful, a-void.
c) The letter “y” is not strictly a vowel but behaves like one.
For example: man-y, bi-cy-cle, i-vy.
Rule # 2
Divide the syllable between two same consonants.
For example: rab-bit, let-ter, buf-fet, des-sert, ber-ry.
Rule # 3
Vowel with long/short vowel sound…
a) The consonant goes with the second vowel if the first vowel has a long vowel sound.
For example: ba-sic, ro-bot, wa-ter.
b) The consonant goes with the first vowel if it has a short vowel sound.
For example: riv-er, mod-el, pan-el.
Exception:
Never split two consonants that make only one sound (ch, sh, ph, th, wh & gh) when pronounced together and aren’t the same letter (diagraphs).
For example: teach-er, lash-es, graph-ic, pan-ther, bath-tub.
Rule# 4
Divide between two vowels that make two sounds.
For example: di-et, di-aer-e-sis.
Exception:
Two vowels make one sound.
For example: coat, boat, meet.
Rule # 5
Use prefixes and suffixes to separate syllables.
For example: re-turn, un-u-su-al, pre-paid, end-less, pay-ing, hap-pi-ness, un-kind-ly.
Rule # 6
Compound nouns are always divided between the two words.
For example: some-thing, cup-cake, with-out, how-ev-er, ba-by-sit-ter, class-room, break-fast, sun-flow-er.
Rule # 7
Divide before the consonant before an “-le” syllable and sounds like “-el”.
For example: a-ble, can-dle, fum-ble, ap-ple, ta-ble, cas-tle.
Exception:
Words which end with “ckle”.
For example: tick-le, tack-le.
Watch this video:
References:
https://eslvault.com/personality-conversation-questions/
https://www.eslfast.com/robot/topics/smalltalk/smalltalk06.htm
https://eslvault.com/numbers-conversation-questions/
https://www.tagalogtranslate.com/article/asking-for-phone-number/#google_vignette
https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/1551/money-and-prices/beginner
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Homonyms-Homophones-and-Homographs-for-ESL-Students
https://www.juicyenglish.com/blog/how-to-divide-words-into-syllables