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LearnEnglish Elementary Podcast Magazine No. 08
Section 8 - Tom the Teacher
You can listen online or download the podcast at Podcast 08 Home
You can also get print versions of the practice materials below in our Podcast 08 Support Pack (pdf file - 363 KB)
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Section 8 is Tom the Teacher. These are more traditional exercises. They look at being accurate in English, and often use the type of exercises you may find in English tests and exams.
Practice materials - Exercise 1
Match 'time phrases' with the correct preposition
Practice materials - Exercise 2
Choose the correct 'time preposition' to complete the sentences
Practice materials - Exercise 3
Match British measurements to descriptions of them
Tapescript
Tom: Hi, my name’s Tom. At the end of every podcast, I talk about some of the language that you heard, and some ways to help you learn English.
Today I want to talk about prepositions – words like ‘on’, ‘at’ and ‘in’. It’s very difficult for learners to use these words correctly in English. We use prepositions all the time – in lots of different ways. But today I’m only going to talk about one situation – using prepositions in time phrases – with words like ‘Saturday’, ‘Christmas’ or ‘December’.
Listen to Ravi. Which preposition does he use before ‘Saturday’?
Ravi: Well, I wanted to ask you about that. What are you doing on Saturday?
Tom: That’s right – he uses ‘on’. We say ‘on Saturday’ – or ‘on’ any other day of the week. ‘On Sunday’, ‘on Monday’, ‘on Tuesday’ – all of the days. Now listen to part of Gordon’s joke. The man in the joke is trying to explain what a ‘rose’ is. Listen to the preposition with ‘Valentine’s Day’.
Gordon: Romantic – you give it to people you love on Valentine’s Day.
Tom: He said ‘on Valentine’s Day’. Valentine’s Day isn’t a day of the week, but it is a day – a single day. So we use ‘on’ again. Now listen to one more. This is Bill in Prague talking about the fish that they eat. Listen for the time phrase.
Bill: Spending a few days in clean bath water cleans the carp and makes it taste better when it is eaten on Christmas Eve.
Tom: Yes, it was ‘on’ again. He said "on Christmas Eve". Can you guess why? Christmas Eve is what we call the day before Christmas day – the 24th of December. So, Christmas Eve is a single day. So we use ‘on’. So – when we’re talking about a single day, we use ‘on’. We can say "on my birthday" or "on the first of December" or "on the day I met you".
And we use it for dates too – because they’re single days – 'on the first of January’, ‘on the twenty-fifth of April’, ‘on the tenth of July’. There’s just one more thing I need to tell you about using (or not using!) ‘on’ in time phrases. Listen to this line from Gordon’s joke.
Gordon: What was the name of the Indian restaurant we went to last Saturday?
Tom: Hmm. He said "last Saturday" – he didn’t use ‘on’. The reason is simple. We don’t use a preposition when we use ‘last’. We just say ‘last Saturday’. No ‘on’. And it’s the same with ‘next’ and ‘this. We just say "What are you doing next Saturday?" or "Let’s have dinner this Saturday". No ‘on’. So now you know how to use ‘on’ in time phrases!
In other time phrases we might use ‘at’ or ‘in’ – for example we say "at the weekend" or "at Christmas", and we say "in December" or "in the afternoon". It’s quite difficult to remember them all. But if you can remember that we use ‘on’ for single days, it will make life a lot easier for you!
People often make mistakes with prepositions because they aren’t thinking in English. They think in their own language and then translate the words into English. And that’s when they make mistakes – and not only with prepositions – with lots of different things.
When you’re writing you have time to think – you can look at grammar books, or your notebook, for help. But speaking is different – you often don’t have time to think. If you want to speak English well – you have to start trying to think in English. You can do this with practise. Look at things that you see around you – at home or in the street and say the words in English. You can say them out loud if you’re alone – if not just think them. Then start trying to say or think sentences – ‘I’m going to the kitchen now. I’m going to make my lunch’. Talk to yourself about what you’re doing in English – out loud or in your head. Try to do this for a short time at first – then you can increase the time. Try to do it for an hour every day – it will soon get easier. And your brain will learn to think in English. Try it. I’m sure you’ll notice the difference after a while.
And now for something different. In this podcast we heard Carolina meeting some people in a pub. She learnt a new word. Listen.
Carolina: But is a round a drink?
Jamie: No. One person buys a drink for everyone at the table – that’s called a round. Then next time someone else buys one. Henry bought the first one and now Jake’s buying the next one, so it’s his round. But you don’t have to…. not if you don’t want to….if you don’t want a drink or something.
Tom: Pubs are a big part of British culture. British people often go to the pub, and you will often be invited to go too. This doesn’t mean that you have to drink alcohol. You can drink lots of different things in a pub – and you can do a lot of different things too. You can have a meal for example. A lot of pubs serve very good food – at lunchtime or in the evening – and it’s usually cheaper than eating in a restaurant. A lot of pubs have live music, or maybe karaoke evenings. Another popular thing is a pub quiz. Teams of people try to answer questions to win a prize. That’s a good way to practise your English! So, it’s good to know some phrases in English that you need to use in a pub. In this podcast Carolina learnt what ‘to buy a round’ means. Now listen to Jake. Can you understand all of the drinks that he’s going to buy?
Jake: Come up to the bar with me and we’ll ask. You can give me a hand with the drinks. OK, so that’s two bottles of Newcastle Brown, a pint of lager, a half of lager, a Diet Coke, a pineapple juice – and whatever Carolina wants.
Tom: The word ‘pint’ is probably new for you. Jake is going to buy a pint of lager. ‘A pint’ is a British measurement – it’s a little bit more than half a litre – point five seven of a litre in fact. We use it informally to mean a pint of beer. And ‘a half’ means half a pint of beer – so that’s more or less a quarter of a litre. Now one more useful phrase. Listen.
Jake: So, same again everybody?
All: yes, yes please, yep, same again, same for me please
Tom: You’ll hear ‘same again’ a lot in the pub, especially when people are buying rounds. It means ‘another of the same drink that you had before’. If someone says “What would you like to drink?” you can say ”Same again please”.
Now, just before I go, I noticed a useful phrase that you can try and use this week. It’s a phrase that means ‘I’m sure’. Listen and see if you can hear it.
Ravi: Gordon. I bet you’re often in the pub. Surrounded by people laughing at your jokes.
Gordon: That’s right Ravi.
Tom: The phrase is ‘I bet’. We use it informally and it means ‘I’m sure’. For example, we can say "I bet it’s going to rain tomorrow" or "I bet Ana forgot her homework again". Try and use ‘I bet’ in your conversations in English.
OK. That’s all from me today. I’ll talk to you all again on the next podcast. Remember you can send your questions to me at learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org. I’ll be happy to answer your questions! Or write to me about any interesting language that you noticed.
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