Everybody ESL

Episode 139

Episode Summary

Vocabulary about fall, Part 3 in our series about passive verbs, how to make a promise, the Joke of the Week, a listening quiz, and more.

Episode Notes

Episode 139 of the Everybody ESL podcast has good vocabulary about fall, a lesson about making promises, Part 3 in our series about passive verbs, the Joke of the Week, a listening quiz, and more. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions (or if you’d like to record an introduction for future episodes), send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com!

Episode 139 rundown: Vocabulary (words about fall): 1:25, Small talk (how to make a promise): 6:05, Grammar (Part 3 in the series about passive verbs): 8:05, The Joke of the Week: 14:20, Listening quiz: 16:10.

Episode Transcription

Vocabulary: words about fall

Fall is here, so this episode’s vocabulary list is all about fall.

And the first word on our fall vocabulary list is harvest. Harvest. H-a-r-v-e-s-t. Harvest. To harvest something is to collect it or to gather it after it has grown. In the fall we harvest crops. Well, I don't harvest crops, but some people harvest crops. They harvest the crops that were growing all summer long. Fall is a time for harvesting.

And the next word is crisp. Crisp. C-r-i-s-p. Crisp. Crisp is a word that we can use when we talk about the weather. Crisp weather is cold weather. I don't think crisp weather is very cold weather, but it's comfortably cold weather. It's cold weather that feels good.

And that brings me to the next term, which is sweater weather. Sweater weather. That's sweater—s-w-e-a-t-e-r, weather—w-e-a-t-h-e-r. Sweater weather. What do you think sweater weather is? Sweater weather: weather that is just the right temperature for wearing a sweater. Sweater weather is not very cold, like winter weather can be. It’s not the kind of weather where you need to wear a heavy coat in order to stay warm. But sweater weather is more cold than, let's say... spring or summer, where you can just go outside wearing a t-shirt. In sweater weather, you wear a sweater to feel comfortable. In many parts of the United States, fall is sweater weather.

How about this one: turn. T-u-r-n. Turn. Why is this common word on the fall vocabulary list? When we talk about leaves in the fall, we often use the word turn because it can mean “to change color.” So when we talk about leaves changing color in the fall, we can talk about the leaves turning. So, to turn can mean “to change color,” at least when you're talking about leaves.

Now here’s another word that is about leaves. And the word is foliage. Foliage. F-o-l-i-a-g-e. Foliage. Foliage is just another word for leaves and branches.

And I have one more word about leaves, and that is rake. Rake. R-a-k-e. A rake is something you use in your yard or your garden to pull leaves together into a pile. If you want to clear the leaves off of an area, you can use a rake to pull the leaves toward you, to pull the leaves into a pile. And rake is also a verb meaning “to use a rake,” or “to use a rake to gather leaves into a pile.”

Here’s one you might know: scarf. Scarf. S-c-a-r-f. Scarf. A scarf is a long piece of clothing that you wear around your neck, and fall is a great time to wear a scarf.

And the last word in our fall vocabulary list is autumnal. Autumnal. A-u-t-u-m-n-a-l. Autumnal. You might know the other word for fall, which is autumn. And this word, autumnal, is the adjective form of that word. So you can describe fall weather as autumnal. Or you can describe things that happen during fall as autumnal. It's kind of a fancy way of saying “happening in the fall” or “related to the fall.”

Those are our fall-related vocabulary words for this episode.

Small Talk: how to make a promise

For our small talk or social situation today, I want to tell you how to make a promise. Do you know how to make a promise? I think there are two basic patterns that we use to make promises.

The first one is to say, “I promise to...” and then the thing that you are promising: “I promise to call you at eight o’clock tomorrow.” “I promise to do my homework tonight.” “I promise to tell the truth.”

So, that is one pattern we use to make promises: “I promise to...” and then the action that you are promising.

Here is the other basic pattern: “I promise that I will...” and then the thing that you are promising. “I promise that I will call you at eight o’clock.” “I promise that I will do my homework.” “I promise that I will tell the truth.”

These are two simple and very common ways that people make promises.

And speaking of promises and homework, I have a homework assignment for you about promises: I want you to write five sentences about promises. I want you to promise five things, and you can use either of those two patterns that I talked about—“I promise to” and “I promise that I will.”

Now, of course you don't need to send me your homework, and I'm not going to give you a grade. But I want you to do this homework anyway, so you can practice these useful constructions.

Grammar: Passive Verbs (Part Three)

This episode’s grammar lesson is Part Three in our series about passive verbs.

Just to give you a very quick review of what we talked about in Parts One and Two, let me tell you this: in an active sentence, the subject of the verb is the thing that does the action. In other words, “The boy chases the dog.” The boy chases the dog. Boy is the subject, and the boy is the thing that is chasing the dog. The subject is doing or performing the action of the verb.

And in a passive sentence, it works differently. In a passive sentence, the subject is the thing that the verb is done to. The subject does not do or perform the action—something else performs the action on the subject.

Here's an example of a passive sentence, a sentence with a passive verb:

“At the bakery, bread is baked every morning.” At the bakery, bread is baked every morning. In this sentence, the bread does not do something. The bread does not bake something. Instead, the bread is baked. Somebody else bakes the bread. In a passive sentence, the subject is not the thing that does the verb. The subject is the thing that the verb is done to.

Okay, that is the very quick review of Parts One and Two.

And now in Part Three, I want to tell you how to make passive verbs, because passive verbs are a little bit difficult. One reason they're difficult is because they have two parts. You need two things to make a passive verb. The first thing you need is some form of the verb to be. In other words, you need a word like is, am, are, was, were, or will be. Every passive verb has one of those.

The second thing you need to make a passive verb is the verb’s past participle. The verb’s past participle. What is a past participle? What am I talking about?

You don't need to know the term past participle, but you do need to know that every verb has several different forms, and one of those forms is used when we make passive verbs. That's the form called the past participle. Let me give you some examples, and I think you will understand what I'm trying to describe.

“The house was painted last fall.” The house was painted last fall. Well, this is a passive sentence because it has a passive verb. Notice, the verb has two parts. It has was. In other words, it has a form of the verb to be—was painted. And there you see it also has the past participle of the verb to paint. The house was painted last fall. That passive verb needs those two parts. And of course, it's a passive sentence because the house, which is the subject, is not painting something. The house is not doing something. Instead, somebody else painted the house last fall.
Here’s another example: “Books are often returned to the library late.” Books are often returned to the library late. Again, we can see in this passive verb two parts: the first part was are—books are often returned to the library late. The second part was returned, and returned is the past participle of the verb to return. So again, a passive verb has two parts. It has a form of the verb to be—in this case, are—and it has a past participle of a verb—in this case, returned. And we know that it's a passive sentence because the subject of the sentence is books, but the books don't do anything. Instead, somebody does something to the books. The books are returned late to the library
Here’s one more example: “The movie will be shown tomorrow night.” The movie will be shown tomorrow night. What do we see with this passive verb? We see two parts. The first one was a form of the verb to be. In this case, it was will be. That’s a future tense form of to be. The second thing we see is the past participle of the verb to show: shown. The movie will be shown tomorrow night. And just to say it one more time, we know this is a passive sentence because the subject, which is the movie, is not doing anything. The subject is not doing the action of the verb. Instead, something else or someone else is doing something to the movie. “Somebody will show the movie tomorrow night,” or “The movie will be shown tomorrow night.”

And that's the end of Part Three of our series on passive verbs. I think there will be one more part, where I talk a little bit about past participles. But I think for now that is enough about passive verbs.

The Joke of the Week!

And now at last, it's time for the joke of the week! Oh, thank goodness! The joke of the week. A joke that is probably not going to be very funny, but I still like these jokes because I think they can show us something interesting or fun about English.

And here is this week's joke: "Why did the person fall into the well? Why did the person fall into the well?"

I'm just going to tell you the answer. Why did the person fall into the well? Because he didn't see that well. (Because he didn't see that well.) Do you get it? Do you understand it? Do you see why this is a joke, why it's supposed to be funny?

It's because there are two different ways of understanding the answer. When I say, “Because he didn't see that well,” that can mean two different things. It can mean he didn't see very well. He didn't see well enough to avoid falling in. And in the other way of understanding it, it means he didn't see the well. He didn't see the well we are talking about. Which well did he not see? He didn't see that well. So, “because he didn't see that well” can mean two different things.

And that's why it's very, very funny. Or maybe it's not funny at all. Well, anyway, that is this week's joke of the week!

Listening Quiz

Here are this episode’s listening quiz sentences:

The leaves have finally started to turn.
The books were left on the library steps.
She is happy because sweater weather has arrived.
The old dog can't walk very well.
His friend made him a scarf for his birthday.