Neil and Georgie have a real conversation in easy English about Christmas and New Year. Learn to talk about your family celebrations.

Vocabulary

tradition

something we do every year for a celebration or have done for a long time

festive

used to describe something to do with a holiday that makes us feel good

New Year's resolutions

promises that we make to ourselves to be better in the New Year

always

every time

Transcript

Georgie

Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. In this podcast, we talk about a different topic each week in easy English. I'm Georgie.

Neil

And I’m Neil. Visit our website to read along with this episode and download a worksheet to help you learn, bbclearningenglish.com.

Georgie

Hi, Neil. How are you are you? Are you feeling festive?

Neil

Hi, Georgie. Yes, I am feeling a little bit festive. That means I am feeling like Christmas is coming and I'm a bit excited.

In the UK, we have lots of celebrations coming up. We have Christmas and New Year. Today we're going to talk about some of the family traditions we have at this time of year.

Georgie

Yes, and traditions, this means something we do every year and have done for a long time. So, Neil, does your family have any traditions at Christmas?

Neil

Yes, I think my family has lots of typical British Christmas traditions. So, for example, we put up decorations and a tree and my kids write a letter to Father Christmas or Santa Claus with a list of things that they would like to receive on Christmas morning, which is for us the 25th. That's when we open our presents, on Christmas morning.

Georgie

OK. And then do they receive a stocking from Father Christmas on Christmas Day?

Neil

Yes. So there are two kinds of presents in my family and maybe in others. There are the ones in the stocking, which are kind of little things from Father Christmas. And then they get presents from us and the family separately.

Georgie

Neil, do you still receive a stocking from Father Christmas?

Neil

I don’t get a stocking from Father Christmas. Just the kids. How about you, Georgie?

Georgie

Well, actually, I am still lucky to get a stocking from Father Christmas and I'm almost 30. So, it's not just for kids.

Neil

And do you write a letter to Father Christmas?

Georgie

No, I don't write a letter. He just… he just knows what I want somehow.

Neil

OK, Georgie, so what are your family's Christmas traditions?

Georgie

Well, we are from the countryside in England and we usually go for a walk in the countryside, just before lunch, and then we usually have lunch quite late, around three or four pm. And the usual tradition for food at Christmas is turkey, but we never have turkey.

Neil

Really? I never have turkey either.

Georgie

Ooh, OK. What do you have?

Neil

We usually have duck or some other kind of bird. But nobody really likes turkey in my house.

Georgie

No nobody likes turkey in my house either. We have venison, which is deer.

Neil

Wow.

Georgie

OK, Neil. So what about New Year's Eve? What do you usually do?

Neil

Well, New Year's Eve is quite different to Christmas for me. Christmas is all about family. But New Year is about friends. And so at New Year, we usually meet with some family friends who also have kids and we'll have a meal together in their house and then we'll play games and have a few drinks and celebrate and wait for midnight.

Georgie

Yeah for me as well it's usually about eating, drinking, dancing with friends and just before midnight you have a countdown from 10 to one and then everyone celebrates, sometimes there's fireworks. Do you want to explain what fireworks are?

Neil

Yeah. Big colourful explosions in the sky.

Georgie

OK, so that's New Year's Eve, but what about the next year? Do you make New Year's resolutions?

Neil

New Year's resolutions, these are promises we make to ourselves to be better. Yeah, I do. I have the usual ones about eating better, doing more exercise, all of those things. Do you?

Georgie

I always make resolutions. But I find it difficult to stick to them.

Neil

Let's recap the language we used during the conversation.

Georgie

We had tradition, something we do every year for a celebration or have done for a long time.

Neil

We heard festive, used to describe something to do with a holiday that makes us feel good.

Georgie

We had New Year's resolutions, that’s promises we make to ourselves to be better in the New Year.

Neil

And always, every time. For example, I always visit my family at Christmas.

Georgie

And that's it for this episode. We're taking a break from this podcast over Christmas and New Year. We hope you enjoy celebrating if you have any festivals coming up in your part of the world.

We’ll be back soon with more podcasts to help you with your English.

Neil

And don't forget, there are loads of podcasts, and videos on our website. Visit bbclearningenglish.com.

Georgie

Bye for now.

Neil

Goodbye.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/real-easy-english/241220

https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/realeasyenglish/RealEasyEnglish_s3e11_traditions_worksheet.pdf

Neil and Beth have a real conversation in easy English about what they buy at the supermarket. Learn to talk about what food you buy.

Vocabulary

shopping list

everything you want to buy written down so that you remember it

staple

a basic or common food such as bread, rice or pasta

Grammar tip

Many foods are uncountable nouns. This means we need something to describe what they are sold in.

For example:

• a bag of pasta
• a jar of honey
• a loaf of bread
• a tin of tuna
• a box of cereal

You can also say some + uncountable noun.

Other foods such as apples and bananas are countable nouns. That means we can buy one apple or five apples, and use a simple plural.

And some foods can be both countable and uncountable nouns.

For example:

• some chicken, parts of chicken such as legs or breasts
• a chicken, a whole chicken

Transcript

Beth

Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, the podcast where we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I’m Beth.

Neil

And I'm Neil. You can read along with this podcast and find a worksheet to help you learn on our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

Beth

Neil, how are you?

Neil

I'm really well, Beth. How are you?

Beth

I'm alright, thank you. Today we're talking about food shopping and we'll talk about the kinds of foods that we buy.

Neil

OK, let's get started. So, Beth, how often do you go food shopping?

Beth

Oh, quite often. I think I go maybe two or three times a week. I prefer to get smaller shops because then you get fresher ingredients rather than doing one big food shop. And it also gets me out of the house.

Neil

Right.

Beth

What about you?

Neil

I would like to go shopping once a week, but there isn't enough room in my fridge for all the food that I need for a week, and I'm not organised enough. So I go often. Every day, every other day maybe.

Beth

OK, so Neil, what sorts of foods do you buy every week generally?

Neil

Well, I buy staples. Things like pasta, rice, bread, potatoes, the basic parts of a meal that fill you up. And I usually think about what meals we want to have and then get the ingredients for those.

Beth

Yeah, I'm the same. I would say we normally buy a bag of pasta. And we normally have a loaf of bread once a week. But then if I buy something like cereal, we don't have that too often, so I might get a box of cereal maybe once a month. And that lasts us for the whole month.

Neil

I get a jar of marmalade every week.

Beth

What?

Neil

Because I love marmalade so much, and I'm the only person who eats it in my house.

Beth

You must have so much marmalade on your toast to go through one a week. That's crazy.

Neil

I love it.

Beth

OK. So, we've talked about bread. We both like a loaf of bread when we go shopping. But the grammar of that is quite interesting, isn't it?

Neil

Yes. So, when we have a noun like bread or rice or jam, which is uncountable, you can't count it, we need something to describe what it's in. So we have a loaf of bread, and that makes it countable. A loaf. A jar of honey or jam. A bag of pasta.

Beth

Yeah, exactly. We can't say pastas or breads or rices. It just sounds really weird. So you'd need to say, oh, please remember to buy a loaf of bread. Or you could say, please buy some bread.

Neil

Yeah. Now, some nouns are countable and uncountable. For example, if you say, I'm going to buy some chicken and I'm going to buy a chicken, what's the difference?

Beth

So, if you buy some chicken, it means parts of chicken, like maybe chicken legs or chicken breasts. Whereas if you say a chicken, it means a whole chicken.

Neil

A dead one.

Some food, though, is simpler grammatically. So, for example, you can count an apple or a banana. So you can say 'apples', 'bananas'. Just a normal plural.

Beth

Exactly. Yeah, I could buy an apple, or I could buy five apples. And that is very simple. Whereas something like tuna, you can't buy tunas. It has to be a tin of tuna.

Neil

Beth, when you go shopping, do you make a list?

Beth

No, I kind of have a list in my head, but then I go a bit crazy when I get there. You should never go shopping when you're hungry.

Neil

That's true.

Beth

What about you?

Neil

I always take a list. And even when I have a list, sometimes I forget things.

Beth

Oh dear.

Neil

And also, sometimes I can't read the words on the list that I've written.

Beth

Let's recap the vocabulary we heard during the conversation. We had shopping list, all the food you need to buy written down so you remember it.

Neil

And we talked about lots of foods we buy, which are uncountable nouns. So, when we buy these, we have some useful ways to talk about them. For example, we buy a loaf of bread.

Beth

A bag of pasta.

Neil

A jar of honey, or my favourite marmalade.

Beth

And some chicken. But you can also buy a chicken. That's a whole chicken. Then it would be a countable noun. Just like 'apples' and 'bananas'.

Neil

That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. To test what you've learned, try the worksheet on our website.

Beth

Next week, we'll be talking about houses.

Neil

See you then.

Beth

Bye!

Neil

Bye.

ref: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/real-easy-english/250110