Friday, April 2, 2010

Conditionals: If I Were a Rich Man

Here´s a song to help you remember this special use of the verb "to be" for the second type of conditionals, If I were (a rich man)... It´s the title of a musical which became so famous in Broadway that it was made into a film in 1971; many people in Spain learnt this sentence by heart and were able to follow the tune of the chorus -especially since the second part of the sentence is yubby,dibby, dibby....dum and that is universal language, sort of.

Set in a small village in Eastern Russia in the early 20th century, this film is about a milkman and his response, as a Jewish father, to requests by his three daughters to bend tradition and allow them to marry the men they love. The plot also involves a pogrom and the eventual emigration from Russia to the U.S.

The following video shows the main character, the father, singing the song; this role was played by a famous actor called Topol. If this is the first time you hear it, follow the lyrics and let yourself be swept along by the music - do pay attention to the verb tenses in the conditional sentences, though...



The trailer below captures some important moments in the film:



And for those of you who like the sound of the violin, click here to listen to
Isaac Stern´s solo at the beginning of the film.

2 comments:

  1. fantastica pagina para aprender ingles y divertirte a la vez...soy un fan de tu blog ,Rosa,como profe eres genial..tus clases deben de ser muy divertidas ..CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you!!
    I do try to be a good teacher but it´s so hard...

    ReplyDelete

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