Learn how to use the infinitive form of English verbs as well as the gerund form of verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chihiro: Hey, everybody! Chihiro here. Tell Me in English Why This Is So Expensive! |
| Ryan: Hi! I’m Ryan. |
| Chihiro: In this lesson, you'll will learn how to talk about a plumbing problem. |
| Ryan: This conversation takes place at Drew's apartment. |
| Chihiro: The conversation is between Drew and Carl, the plumber. |
| Ryan: The speakers will be speaking formally. |
| Chihiro: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Carl: Hi! I'm Carl from Carl's Plumbing Services. Thank you for calling us. |
| Drew: Thanks for coming so quickly. |
| Carl: What seems to be the problem? |
| Drew: Well, the sink in the kitchen is clogged. I tried to unclog it myself with Rooter Roter, but it didn't work very well. |
| Carl: I see. When did you begin to have trouble? |
| Drew: About a week ago. It's actually getting worse day by day even though I continued using the Rooter Roter for a bit. |
| Carl: Well, let me take a look at it. Let's just hope it's nothing too ugly... like what I found last week. |
| Drew: Umm... what DID you find? |
| Carl: Not for your ears sir. |
| (after checking the pipes under the sink). |
| Carl: Well, I found your problem. |
| Drew: Really? What was it? |
| Carl: You had a small towel in your drain. |
| Drew: What!? Really!? Well, no wonder! |
| Carl: That'll be fifty dollars please. |
| Drew: Fifty dollars!! |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Carl: Hi! I'm Carl from Carl's Plumbing Services. Thank you for calling us. |
| Drew: Thanks for coming so quickly. |
| Carl: What seems to be the problem? |
| Drew: Well, the sink in the kitchen is clogged. I tried to unclog it myself with Rooter Roter, but it didn't work very well. |
| Carl: I see. When did you begin to have trouble? |
| Drew: About a week ago. It's actually getting worse day by day even though I continued using the Rooter Roter for a bit. |
| Carl: Well, let me take a look at it. Let's just hope it's nothing too ugly... like what I found last week. |
| Drew: Umm... what DID you find? |
| Carl: Not for your ears sir. |
| (after checking the pipes under the sink). |
| Carl: Well, I found your problem. |
| Drew: Really? What was it? |
| Carl: You had a small towel in your drain. |
| Drew: What!? Really!? Well, no wonder! |
| Carl: That'll be fifty dollars please. |
| Drew: Fifty dollars!! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Ryan: I heard plumbers make a lot of money. |
| Chihiro: I heard the same thing too. I remember one of my teachers complaining that his plumber friend earns more money than he does! |
| Ryan: Hmm, maybe I'll consider a change in career |
| Chihiro: In that case you can give me a discount when you fix my place up! |
| Ryan: I'll think about that. Listeners, if you ever need somebody to come over to your house to take a look at something, even if the problem can be fixed easily, you might still be charged with what's called a call out fee. |
| Chihiro: Basically what this means is that they charge you for the person coming to your house to take a look at the problem. Don't be surprised by the price, as it could be more expensive than you think! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chihiro: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Ryan: service [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: work performed by a person or people who serve |
| Ryan: service [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: service [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: plumbing [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: pipe system that allows water to flow through a building |
| Ryan: plumbing [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: plumbing [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: to clog [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: to gradually block something so that something else cannot move through it with ease anymore |
| Ryan: to clog [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: to clog [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: worse [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: inferior in quality |
| Ryan: worse [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: worse [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: trouble [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: problem or inconvenience |
| Ryan: trouble [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: trouble [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: pipe [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: hollow cylinder used to carry water or gas or other substances |
| Ryan: pipe [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: pipe [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: sink [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: wide bowl-like object to catch the water from the faucet and drain it through a pipe |
| Ryan: sink [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: sink [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: problem [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: an obstacle, a source of distress, a negative issue |
| Ryan: problem [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: problem [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Ryan: drain [natural native speed] |
| Chihiro: something to remove a liquid from a place |
| Ryan: drain [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ryan: drain [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Chihiro: Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the phrases from this lesson. |
| Ryan: The first phrase is, |
| Chihiro: "not for your ears." |
| Ryan: What the plumber means by this is that the thing he found in the clogged sink before was so extreme, that he can't tell Drew, in other words, he doesn't want Drew to hear it. You can use this for the eyes as well, as in, |
| Chihiro: "not for your eyes" |
| Ryan: When you want to tell somebody that they can't see something. It's an expression that is commonly used by an adult to a child. |
| Chihiro: The next phrase we'll look at is, |
| Ryan: "no wonder." |
| Chihiro: This is a phrase used when you want to say that something is not surprising. Drew uses it to say that since the towel was in the pipe, then it's no surprise the water wasn't going down. You can however, use it as an exclamation, or you can use it as part of a sentence, as in, |
| Ryan: "no wonder he looks bad, he's caught a cold!" |
Lesson focus |
| Chihiro: The focus of this lesson is verbs followed by other verbs. There are certain verbs in English that can be followed by another verb in its infinitive form or gerund form. Some verbs can only have one or the other. In this lesson, we'll look at the verbs that can be followed by both. |
| Ryan: Okay, before we dive into examples from the dialogue, tell us, Chihiro, what does infinitive and gerund mean again? |
| Chihiro: Well, the infinitive form of the verb is its most basic form, usually with to. And the gerund form of the verb is the -ing form of the verb. So if we have the verb "dance", the infinitive form would be "to dance", and the gerund form is "dancing". |
| Ryan: Now that that's clearer, let's take a look at this phrase from the dialogue. |
| Chihiro: “When did you begin to have trouble?” |
| Ryan: In that sentence, there are two verbs," begin" and "have." In this sentence, "have" is in the infinitive form, "to have". Let's take a look at another sentence. |
| Chihiro: “I continued using the Rooter Rotor”. |
| Ryan: The two verbs in this phrase are "continue" and "use." The second verb "use" is in the gerund form and becomes "using." |
| Chihiro: Each of these sentences has two verbs. Depending on the first verb, the second verb may be an infinitive or gerund. In these two cases, the first verb can be accompanied by either a gerund or an infinitive. Therefore; |
| Ryan: “When did you begin to have trouble?” |
| Chihiro: Can also be said as |
| Ryan: “When did you begin having trouble?” |
| Chihiro: And still be grammatically correct. Likewise, |
| Ryan: “I continued using the Rooter Rotor” |
| Chihiro: Can also be |
| Ryan: “I continued to use the Rooter Rotor” |
| Chihiro: Okay, here are some more verbs that can be followed by both gerund and infinitive |
| Ryan: The verb like – “He likes to eat there,” or, he “likes eating there.” |
| Chihiro: The verb love – “I love to sing in the rain,” or, “I love singing in the rain.” |
| Ryan: The verb prefer – “They prefer to play with the blocks,” or, “they prefer playing with the blocks.” |
| Chihiro: The verb start – “We started to walk through the forest,” or, “we started walking through the forest.” |
| Ryan: Now, before you start thinking that you're free to use either or, here's the catch. There's a difference in meaning with some verb combinations which depends on whether you use the infinitive or gerund. |
| Chihiro: Take these two sentences for example. |
| Ryan: “She remembered to buy milk.” |
| Chihiro: and |
| Ryan: “She remembered buying milk.” |
| Chihiro: In the first sentence, she remembered that she had to buy milk. But, in the second sentence, she has already bought the milk and she remembers doing so. So, as you can see, there's a difference in meaning. Watch out for these they pop-up every once in a while. Sometimes the meaning difference could be slight, and sometimes it could be cause for miscommunication. |
| Ryan: Here's another example. |
| Chihiro: “I regret telling him the truth”. |
| Ryan: and |
| Chihiro: “I regret to tell you the truth.” |
| Ryan: In the first example, Chihiro already told him the truth. In the second example, she's going to tell him the truth. |
| Chihiro: So some verbs, such as remember and regret do make a big difference whether they are followed by an infinitive or gerund. |
| Ryan: There are verbs that can only be followed by an infinitive or gerund, otherwise they'll be grammatically wrong, but we won't get into those in this lesson. |
| Chihiro: Well, we regret to inform you all that we must close the grammar point for this lesson now. |
Outro |
| Chihiro: That just about does it for today. We’ll see you soon. |
| Ryan: Bye for now. |
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