Elementary podcasts -> Podcast 04 Home -> Conversations
This page has the online practice materials for:
LearnEnglish Elementary Podcast Magazine No. 04
Section 1 - Conversations in English
You can listen online or download the podcast at Podcast 04 Home
You can also get print versions of the practice materials below in our Download Podcast 04 Support Pack (pdf file - 368 KB)
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“How are you feeling?” – being sympathetic
This section starts at the beginning of the audio file, immediately after the Introduction, e.g. when the counter on your audio player is on 00mins.20secs
Section 1 is based on the Introduction. This section looks at things we often say and do in friendly conversations.
Suggestion: One way to use this is to read the transcript, and then look at Tom's tip in this section. You can then do some exercises to help you to learn the common phrases. A good idea is to practise these with a friend who speaks English or is also learning English.
Transcript
Ravi: Hello again and welcome to LearnEnglish Elementary podcast number four. I’m Ravi – from Manchester
Tess: And I’m Tess – from London. Hi. Now, as usual we’ve got loads of great stuff for you to listen to but before we tell you about that - Ravi, I have to ask you, are you feeling better now?
Ravi: Oh, a lot better now thank you.
Tess: On Saturday morning Ravi called me and he sounded terrible. “Oh Tess, I feel really bad.”
Ravi: Yeah, OK. I did feel terrible. I had a really bad cold, a headache, ugh! I had a football match on Saturday afternoon too.
Tess: You didn’t play football, did you?
Ravi: No, I felt too bad. Do you know what I did?
Tess: What?
Ravi: A friend came over and we watched all of the Lord of the Rings films – all three of them. Ten hours of DVDs!
Tess: You’re joking. I can’t watch TV for that long. I get bored. Anyway, I didn’t really like Lord of the Rings. I liked the book. The film’s never as good as the book, I think.
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Tom’s tip 1
When British people say “How are you?” this is really a way of saying “Hello”. We are not really asking if someone is well or feeling ill – we expect the person to answer “Fine thanks” or “I’m OK thanks”. If we want to know if someone is ill, we ask “How are you feeling?”. If we know that someone has been ill, we can ask the question that Tess asks Ravi – “Are you feeling better?”.
Practice materials: talking about how someone is feeling - gapfilling activity
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Now look at this summary of the dialogue between Dave and Paul: Without looking at the transcript above, can you remember the phrases that they used?
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Asks Paul if he’s better now. |
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Answers and describes how he felt. |
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Sympathises and explains why he was worried. |
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Explains what was wrong with him and explains what happened later. |
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Sympathises and asks a question about what happened later. |
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Answers and describes what he did to get better. |
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Asks for more information. |
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Makes a comment and moves the conversation on to a new topic. |
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Now you can practise the conversation with a friend, or you can write the dialogue in the space below:
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Answer and describe how you felt |
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Sympathise and say how worried you were |
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Explain what was wrong with you
Explain what happened |
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Sympathise.
Ask a question about what happened |
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(Ask your friend to explain if you don’t understand) |
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Make a comment
Move the conversation on to a new topic |
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Next:
Continue to: Practice materials: Section 2: I'd like to meet
Return to: Elementary Podcast 04 Home Page
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