In this mini episode, you will learn the right way to talk about certain kinds of activities.
Episode 282 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the right way to talk about certain kinds of activities. Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello! This is Lee, from Busan in Korea. And you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 282 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you the right way to talk about certain activities. I’m talking about activities that end in -ing. For instance, swimming. Or shopping. Or driving, walking, hiking, skateboarding, rollerblading, surfing. These are the kinds of activities I’m talking about
When we are talking about doing these activities, we really don’t use the word do. We don’t say, “When I do swimming.” Or “I hope this summer we can do scuba diving.” Or “I like to do jogging in the mornings.” We don’t say that. We don’t use the word do with this kind of activity, this kind of -ing activity.
Okay. Well, if we don’t use the word do with this kind of activity, what word do we use? How do we talk about these activities?
We use the word go. That’s right: we go shopping, we go walking, we go hiking, we go jogging. I can say, “I hope this summer I can go scuba diving.” Or I could say, “Every Saturday morning my mother goes walking in the neighborhood.”
Go. That’s the verb that we use when we are talking about these -ing activities.
I should say, there is one other verb we can use. In some situations, you can use the verb come. For instance, if you are inviting somebody to accompany you. If you and your friends are going to go hiking, you could invite your friend to join you by saying, “I hope you can come hiking with us.” I hope you can come hiking with us.
So, usually we use the word go when we are talking about this kind of activity. But in some situations we can use the word come. I don’t think there are any situations where we use the word do. Do might make sense to you. It might seem like the right word to use when you’re talking about this kind of activity. But that is not the word that we use.
And that is this lesson on talking about this kind of -ing activity.
Outro
This is the end of episode 282 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Lee recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!