Learn how to discuss and assess your ability
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Talking About Your Sporting Prowess in English. David Here. |
| Kellie: Hello. I'm Kellie. |
| David: In this lesson, you’ll learn how you discuss and assess your own ability. The conversation takes place at the gym. |
| Kellie: The speakers are friends. |
| David: So they will use informal English. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Phil: This gym has a squash court too. Fancy a game? |
| Katrina: Oh, I can't play squash. |
| Phil: What!? |
| Katrina: I'm really bad at it. I always miss the ball. |
| Phil: That doesn't matter. You can still try, right? |
| Katrina: There's a swimming pool here, isn't there? I'm good at swimming. Let's go swimming! |
| Phil: Ah, I can't swim! |
| Katrina: That's okay, I can teach you! |
| David: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Phil: This gym has a squash court too. Fancy a game? |
| Katrina: Oh, I can't play squash. |
| Phil: What!? |
| Katrina: I'm really bad at it. I always miss the ball. |
| Phil: That doesn't matter. You can still try, right? |
| Katrina: There's a swimming pool here, isn't there? I'm good at swimming. Let's go swimming! |
| Phil: Ah, I can't swim! |
| Katrina: That's okay, I can teach you! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Do you go to the gym, Kellie? |
| Kellie: Yeah, I exercise three times a week. It’s becoming increasingly popular in the UK. |
| David: Are there many gyms around? |
| Kellie: Yeah, and more and more are opening each year. Most cities and large towns will have a few to choose from and they often open 24 hours a day, making them convenient no matter what your work schedule is. |
| David: I like how most gyms these days have both equipment that you can use freely and also classes and instructors. |
| Kellie: That’s great, isn’t it? You can do your own thing or listen to the experts. But you don’t have to join a gym to get fit. |
| David: Oh? What other options are there? |
| Kellie: Well, you can get out there and go walking or running, but a lot of social clubs and pubs also have sports teams. |
| David: Pubs have sports teams? Isn’t that a little contradictory? |
| Kellie: A little, but it’s usually football teams and involves drinks afterwards, win or lose. |
| David: There is a big fitness and diet culture in the UK too, isn’t there? |
| Kellie: Yeah, it’s easy to find any healthy foods or diet supplements you may want. |
| David: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kellie: gym [natural native speed] |
| David: a place equipped with machines and other tools for exercising |
| Kellie: gym[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: gym [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: squash court [natural native speed] |
| David: an indoor area that is used to play squash |
| Kellie: squash court[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: squash court [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: fancy [natural native speed] |
| David: to like or want something |
| Kellie: fancy[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: fancy [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: to miss [natural native speed] |
| David: to fail to attend, perform, or reach something |
| Kellie: to miss[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: to miss [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: to matter [natural native speed] |
| David: to be of importance |
| Kellie: to matter[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: to matter [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: swimming pool [natural native speed] |
| David: a man-made large container of water that is used for people to swim in |
| Kellie: swimming pool[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: swimming pool [natural native speed] |
| David: And last we have.. |
| Kellie: to teach [natural native speed] |
| David: to impart knowledge or skill |
| Kellie: to teach[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: to teach [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| David: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kellie: fancy |
| David: meaning "want" |
| David: I know about using fancy as an adjective, but not as a verb. |
| Kellie: It’s a very informal word, but you’ll hear it a lot because it’s very casual. It gives the impression of being spontaneous and not planned. |
| David: How do we use it? |
| Kellie: In place of “want”. If you want to ask somebody to go for a drink with you, you can say “fancy a drink?”. |
| David: That does sound casual! |
| Kellie: Yeah, there’s no pressure or expectation. So even if you’ve planned something but you don’t want to sound too eager, or make people think they have to go, then you can use fancy instead of want. |
| David: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kellie: Sure. For example, you can say.. “Do you fancy going to London next week?” |
| David: ..which means "Do you want to go to London next week?" Okay, what's the next word or phrase? |
| Kellie: doesn't matter |
| David: meaning "it isn’t of importance" |
| Kellie: “Matter” itself means ‘of importance’, and “doesn’t” makes it negative. |
| David: So it means that something isn’t important. |
| Kellie: That’s right. It’s a really common way to say that something isn’t important. We would use it when something bad or disappointing has happened, but we want people to know that it’s okay and it hasn’t caused trouble. |
| David: But, the true meaning of this depends on the tone of voice used. |
| Kellie: That’s right. If I say [light] “doesn’t matter’, then it really is of no importance and all is fine. But if I say [darker] “doesn’t matter”, then it definitely sounds like it does matter! |
| David: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kellie: Sure. For example, you can say.. “I lost my purse but it doesn't matter as there was no money in there.” |
| David: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: In this lesson, you'll learn how to discuss and assess our own ability. |
| David: This sounds like a big topic! |
| Kellie: It is! And in order to learn how to do this, we need to go back to our old friends, the modal verbs. |
| David: It feels like modal verbs are the third host of this series! |
| Kellie: They’re important! Just to recap, modal verbs are words such as “could,” “would,” “might” and so on. To describe ability, we need to use the modal verb “can”. It’s quite simple. Start with the subject you’re speaking about, and often this is a pronoun, then it’s “can” and finally the ability. |
| David: Let’s hear an example. |
| Kellie: “I can play piano.” The subject is “I”, then “can”, then the ability - “play the piano.” What can you do, David? |
| David: I can snowboard. |
| Kellie: Wow, cool! I can’t snowboard. |
| David: Oh, so that’s the negative form. |
| Kellie: That’s right. Just add “not”, to make either “cannot” or the more informal “can’t”. So, what can’t you do? |
| David: I can’t cook. |
| Kellie: But you’re able to eat right? Of course! We can also use “be able to” in place of “can”. So, “I am able to play piano” and “he is able to snowboard”. “Can” is more frequently used though. |
| David: Katrina and Phil spoke about their ability in the dialogue. Katrina said that she can’t play squash, and Phil that he can’t swim. |
| Kellie: That’s right. Hey David, you said that you can snowboard, right? How often do you snowboard? |
| David: I occasionally snowboard. I snowboard twice a year. |
| Kellie: Okay. When David answered my question, he used some adverbs of frequency, so let’s talk about those. It’s not enough sometimes just to say that you do something, you need to say how often you do it too! Going snowboarding every weekend is very different to just twice a year, right? |
| David: It’d be a lot more expensive for one! |
| Kellie: Exactly. So we can use adverbs of definite frequency to say exactly how often. These are words such as weekly, once, twice, every day... |
| David: I study English every day. |
| Kellie: Yeah, that’s it! I’m very glad to hear that too! Then there are adverbs of indefinite frequency. These aren’t exact words, they just give a general idea of how often. These are words like “usually,” “often” and “sometimes.” |
| David: I usually study English every day. |
| Kellie: In this case, David doesn’t study every day as there will be occasional days where he doesn’t. He studies most days, but maybe he will miss a day if he’s busy. |
| David: How about “I rarely study English”? |
| Kellie: Well, the sentence is correct, but it means that most of the time you don’t study English. So I hope none of our listeners copy that sentence! |
| David: I hope so too! |
Outro |
| David: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Kellie: Bye. |
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