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Does Reza like shopping for clothes?  What’s the difference between me too and neither do I? Shopping vocabulary and phrasal verbs ‘bring up’ and ‘go off’.

Feedback:

“Excelente, estoy comenzando a escuchar sus lecciones y de verdad estoy bastante emocionado. Soy de Venezuela y hace algun tiempo he estado buscando una pagina donde practicar mi “listening” ya que encontraba muchas pero el ingles era de poca calidad o el audio no funcionaba. Con ustedes de Verdad comprendi casi todo, tienen un ritmo bastante util para la practica.”

Ignacio (Cáceres) – “Hi Reza and Craig! I knew this amazing web three days ago, and I think I am improving my English, so thank you very much.
I understand around the 70% of the words you two use and it makes me feel good because I have been a lot of time without listening or speaking in English with someone.
Both of you have won a new fan from Cáceres (I know Reza will smile remembering old memories when he reads where I am).”

Gramática: Sara asked on Facebook to explain Me neither, me too / neither do I / so do I.

Me too:

Reza: Do you like biscuits (las galletas)?
Craig: Oh yes, I love biscuits!
Reza: Me too (yo también)

Reza: Craig, do you like the colour pink?
Craig: Not really. It’s not my favourite colour. No, I don’t like pink.
Reza: Me neither (yo tampoco)

Reza: HAVE you ever visited Dublin?
Craig: Yes, I HAVE.
Reza: So HAVE I. (Repeat the auxiliary verb)

Reza: ARE you going to have a cup of tea later?
Craig: Yes, I AM.
Reza: So AM I.

Craig : I like cheese (no hay verbo auxiliar)
Reza: So DO I

Craig: What DID you do this morning?
Reza: I went to a meeting at the British Council.
Craig: So DID I.

Craig: Did you have a good lunch?
Reza: No, I didn’t.
Craig: Neither DID I.

¡OJO! – No se puede decir X”Me nor”X

Vocabulary Corner: Shopping

Do you like shopping for clothes?
Reza hates shopping for clothes. He buys clothes in the sales (en las rebajas) because he’s stingy (mean) – tacaño.
Craig gets impatient during the sales when he can’t find his size and the clothes that he likes. He likes shopping for clothes if he has time and money!

price tag = etiqueta del precio
receipt = recibo (not XticketX – a ticket in English is for the bus, the train, the cinema, a plane ticket etc)
refund = reembolso / rembolsar – please refund my money (verb), please give me a refund (noun)
try it on = probarlo
exchange = cambiar
in the sale = rebajado / de rebajas
bargain = ganga
fits = va bien de talla
size = talla (Craig keeps clothes in his wardrobe in case he loses weight and they will fit him)
I’ll take it = me lo llevo
changing rooms = probadores
label = etiqueta
suits = sienta bien (de color, diseño etc.)

Study more shopping vocabulary with La Mansión del Inglés

Phrasal verbs: To bring up / To go off

to bring up

a) I was brought up in London by my parents. (criar, educar) – I was brought up in London by my parents. I grew up in London.
b) I brought up the salary increase yesterday, but my boss didn’t say anything. (mencionar, sacar un tema)
c) I’m going to bed now, can you bring up the newspaper when you finish reading it? (subir)
d) I brought up my breakfast. (vomitar)

to go off

a) It’s very hot today, put the fish in the fridge or it’ll go off. (estropearse)
b) I’m really sorry I’m late. My alarm clock didn’t go off this morning. (sonar) – Also, bombs ‘go off’ (explotar) – “A bomb went off in the city centre this morning.”
c) I don’t know where Christine is. She got up really early and went off on her bike. (se ha ido)

“If you snooze, you lose!”

Study more phrasal verbs aquí.

Please send us an email, or a sound file (mensaje de voz en mp3) with a comment or question to [email protected] or [email protected].

Puedes darnos estrellas y una reseña en iTunes.

The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called See You Later – licensed by creative commons under a by-nc license at ccmixter.org.

FULL TRANSCRIPTION (kindly contributed by Patricia Alonso)  

C: Hello and welcome to episode 19 of “Aprender Inglés con Reza y Craig”. Hi Reza.

R: Hi Craig, how are you?

C: I’m very well, how are you?

R: Very well.

C: It’s good to be back again after our two-week break? I think we haven’t recorded for two weeks?

R: That’s right, a fortnight.

C: Before we start this podcast properly I have some feedback, some news, algunas noticias. Two messages that we’ve received from our students. One, I don’t think I have the name of the person but the person is from Venezuela: “Excelente, estoy comenzando a escuchar sus lecciones y de verdad estoy bastante emocionada”, which means I’me very excited?

R: Very excited, yeah.

C: Emotional?

R: Nooo, very excited, very…

C: Very happy.

R: Very happy. Could be moved as well, but I don’t think that’s what she means here.

C: Anyway, it’s lovely. “Soy de Venezuela y hace algún tiempo he estado buscando una página donde practicar mi listening ya que encontraba muchas pero el inglés era de poca calidad y el audio no funcionaba”, what a shame, “ Con ustedes de verdad comprendí casi todo, tienen un ritmo bastante útil para la práctica”. Isn’t that nice?

R: Thank you very much.

C: Thank you very much, whoever you are, we don’t know but thank you. Also, another message from Ignacio “Hi Reza and Craig!”. This is well done Ignacio for writing in English. “I knew this amazing web three days ago and I think I am improving my English, so thank you very much. “ Thank you, Ignacio. “I understand around the 70% of the words you two use “, that’s good, “ and it makes me feel good because I have been a lot of time without listening or speaking in English with someone. Both of you have won a new fan from Cáceres (I know Reza will smile remembering old memories when he reads where I am)”:

R: Wow!

C: Ignacio, yeah.

R: I am smiling, I am smiling. Un abrazo para todos en Cáceres.

C: So, thank you Ignacio and please keep writing, keep giving us feedback, sigue escribiéndonos en itunes, por la web, y al final del podcast voy a decir cómo puedes contactar con nosotros.

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C: Gramática. We have a question from Sara who asked us in Facebook, facebook. Com/mansioningles, and Sara asked us to explain me neither, me too and neither do I. Over to you, Reza.

R: Ok, can I add one to the list? If you want to know about those three you might as well add so do I to complete the list.

C: So do I.

R: Let’s begin with me to because I think it’s the easiest.

C: Ok.

R: Em… Craig.

C: yes.

R: Do you like biscuits?

C: Oh, yes, I love biscuits.

R: Me too. Craig likes biscuits, I like biscuits. So, Craig said he liked biscuits, but it would be if I repeated oh, I like biscuits, too many words, so I just say me too. Whatever he said, for me it’s the same. Crag, do you like the colour pink?

C: Not really, It’s not my favourite colour, no, I don’t like pink.

R: Me neither, I don’t like the colour pink.

C: Do you like blue?

R: Yes, I do.

C: So do I.

R: Aha, we got a lot of grammar there. So, Craig said he didn’t like pink, also I don’t like pink, so I agree with him, but I agree this time with a negative. He said he doesn’t like pink, I agree with that negative, so this time I say me neither or me neither, there’s two pronunciations of the word. Me neither, me neither, it’s to agree with a negative, earlier we had me too to agree with a positive. Then Craig said so do I. When I said I like blue, wasn’t that what I said?

C: I said I like blue, you said so do I.

R: Oh, I beg your pardon. Craig said he liked blue, I like blue, so I say so do I. So do I means the same as me too. I could say me too but sometimes I say so do I. Well, I say so do I means the same as me too, right, but you can’t always say so do I, for example Craig, have you ever visited Dublin?

C; Yes, I have.

R: So have I.

C: Ah, so you’re repeating the auxiliary verb.

R: That’s it.

C: El verbo auxiliar.

R: Exactly, so my question to you was present perfect, so the auxiliary verb was have, have you ever visited Dublin, have, he has. Me too, I agree, or I’ve had a similar experience, so I repeat with the word so the auxiliary, so have I.

C: Have you ever been to Cuba?

R: Yes I have.

C: So have I.

R: Ok, what about, Craig, are you going to have a cup of tea later?

C: Yes, I am.

R: So am I. This time the auxiliary verb was the verb to be or to be going, so I repeat the verb to be, so do I, this time is so am I, can be so have I, so will I, so can I, so could I… Craig, can you swim?

C: Yes, I can.

R: So can I.

C; Ah, the modal verb can, you repeat.

R: Yeah, you can repeat a modal, you can repeat the verb to be, you can repeat an auxiliary. You don’t repeat the main verb, unless the main verb is the verb to be, which is a special case, you repeat the auxiliary or the modal with so to agree with something.

C: Aha, but what if there is no auxiliary verb? For example, what if I say I like cheese?

R: Aha, there’s no auxiliary. Well, you have to ask yourself what is the auxiliary verb that you use with that tense. I like, that’s present simple.

C: Right.

R: The auxiliary with the present simple is do.

C: Correct.

R: So, I add so do I. Let’s do a past one. Craig, tell me what you did yesterday.

C: Yesterday… what was yesterday? Jaja.

R: Yesterday was..

C: Tuesday?

R: Tuesday.

C: Tuesday. I worked at home.

R: So did I.

C: Ok, so did I because it’s the past.

R: Yeah. He worked at home, I worked at home, I said so did I. Did is the past auxiliary verb.

C: What did you do this morning?

R: I went to a meeting at the British Council.

C: So did I.

R: Mm. So, went, past simple, auxiliary did.

C: Did you have a good lunch?

R: No, I didn’t.

C: Neither did I.

R: Aha, that’s the final part of the jigsaw, listeners. He’s agreeing with me as he had a similar experience, but for a negative. So, he could have said me neither, yeah, but he did it the more complicated way, neither did I. It’s for negatives; it’s the same as so do I, but the negative version. Now, listeners, I know what you’re probably thinking, all students think this. You’re thinking it’s much easier to say me too or me neither.

C: Yeah.

R: True.  It’s easier, you don’t have to think about the grammar.

C: No auxiliary verb, no hay que pensar sobre el verbo auxiliar.

R: It doesn’t matter it’s present, past, future, can… You just say me too.

C: Or me neither.

R: Or you agree with the negative me neither. Yeah, you could do that, but, you know, it’s boring if you always use the same vocabulary, so sometimes it’s nice to use the so plus auxiliary verb to be, so do I, so can I, or to agree with the negative, neither do I, neither will I, neither can I… Or, a last variation, Craig, instead of the word neither you can say nor. Let’s practice. Craig, did you have a good lunch?

C: No, I didn’t.

R: Nor did I. Nor did I equals neither did I.

C: Did you go out last night?

R: No, I didn’t

C: Nor did I.

R: Nor did I. He could have said neither do I… Sorry, no, he couldn’t. He said nor did I, past simple, he could have said neither did I, past simple, so neither, nor, do I, did I, etc. But, be careful listeners, me neither is one thing. You cannot say me nor, we don’t say that.

C: Ojo.

R: You don’t say. You can say neither do I or nor do I, but me neither yes, me plus nor, no.

C: just one thing. You’re from Belfast.

R: That’s right.

C: Neither or neither? What do you say? Me neither or me neither?

R: In Belfast nearly everybody says neither. What comes more naturally to you?

C: Neither comes more naturally, so from London I would say neither do I, yeah.

R: But I think in the UK you hear a mixture.

C: Yeah, I think you do.

R: You hear both, don’t you?

C: Yes, you do.

R: Whereas, I would say in the United States nearly everybody says neither.

C: I don’t know.

R; I think so.

C: Ok.

R: I’m fairly sure in America most people say neither.

C: But it doesn’t matter, everybody understands, just choose one and stick to it. Sigue así.

R: If you’re not sure, listeners, do it the easy way and say me too, me neither, if you don’t want to get your grammar wrong. But if you want to be more interesting, sometimes say so do I, neither do I, nor do I.

C: Yo también y yo tampoco.

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C: Moving on…

R; Yes, let’s go.

C: Moving on to vocabulary corner, and this episode, I thought we would chat a little about shopping.

R: Shopping, shopping… Well, Craig, you haven’t picked the best person in the world, I don’t like shopping.

C: Well, I was going to ask you, do you like shopping for clothes?

R: Oh, I hate shopping for clothes, I really hate shopping for clothes.

C: So, when do you usually buy your clothes? Do you wait for the sales, las rebajas, the sales here in Valencia, or do you just buy things when and as you need them?

R; I buy things when, as I need them, but I try to buy things when they are on sales, when I need them.

C: Jaja.

R; I hate having to pay the full price for clothes.

C: Yeah.

R: I’m really stingy.

C: Tacaño.

R: Stingy is the same as mean, tacaño. Don’t like spending a lot of money on clothes. What about you?

C: And do you have favourite shops that you go to or it doesn’t matter?

R: For clothes doesn’t really matter for me. What about you?

C: I buy some things in the sales but I get very impatient when I look around in the sales and I can’t find my size or I can’t find something that I like. I enjoy shopping for clothes if I have time and money, of course. I’m going to test you on some vocabulary for clothes, can I do that? I will say the word in English, you tell me the Spanish equivalent?

R: I’ll try.

C: Price tag.

R: Uhhh, you started with a very difficult one.

C: Let’s start with the meat and potatoes.

R: Price tag… I’m gonnna just guess and you tell me if I’m wrong, is it la etiqueta del precio?

C: Exactly.

R: Is it?

C: Yes, it is, la etiqueta del precio, price tag. What about receipt?

R: Recibo.

C: Yeah, although interestingly some, in Spanish, sometimes you say ticket.

R: Yeah.

C: Which is… sounds very English but we wouldn’t say ticket, would we? For the piece of paper you get when you buy something. Ticket in English would be for the bus, for the train, for a concert, for the airplane, for example, for the cinema…

R: Yeah, you could really translate that as the Spanish word ticket, as they say in Spanish un ticket, when you say a bus ticket, in Spanish that’s billete.

C: Exactly.

R: Whereas, un ticket is a receipt.

C: And another thing about receipt, when you see it, the word is RECEIPT, the pronunciation has nothing to do with the spelling, the p is silent and it’s receipt, recibo. What about refund? The verb or the noun.

R: reembolso?

C: Yes.

R: O reembolsar? If it’s a verb.

C: If it’s a verb. The stress changes, the noun, a Refund, the stress is on the second syllable… No. Ok, my mistake, I’m sorry, the stress is on the first syllable, Refund, to ask for a Refund, and if it’s a verb the spelling is the same but change the stress to the second syllable, please refund my money, please give me my money back. Try it on.

R: Well, if you’re talking about clothes, probar. Because there’s another meaning of try it on.

C: Yeah.

R: Clothes, probar, try on.

C: Try on, yeah, try on some shoes or try some shoes on, it’s a phrasal verb that you can separate and put the object in the middle. Try a jacket on or try on a jacket. What about exchange? To exchange clothes.

R: Uh, that’s a very good question.

C: Same as change.

R: Cambiar.

C: Yeah.

R: Ok.

C: You buy a shirt, you decide you don’t like it or it’s the wrong size because you didn’t try it on, so you take it back to the shop to exchange the jacket. In the sale?

R: De rebajas.

C: Yes, de rebajas, in the sales, so the sales, las rebajas, and in the sales, de rebajas o rebajado. Bargain.

R: Una ganga.

C: Una ganga, a bargain, it’s a good price, ganga, bargain. Size?

R: Talla.

C: Talla, yeah, it’s my size, it’s too big, it’s too small, it’s not my size. If something is your size it fits you, va bien de talla, it fits you, it’s your size.

R: Craig, can I ask you a question? Are you the same size these days as 10 years ago?

C: No, and the funny thing is I still have clothes in my wardrobe, mi armario, from 10 years ago, hoping that one day I will lose weight and they will fit me.

R: Craig, me too, jaja, me too, it’s true.

C: I hate throwing away good clothes.

R: Also, it’s a good objective to walk towards, yeah? To see those clothes and say ok, I can’t get into them yet, but if I get rid of some of this belly fat I will, I will.

C: If you walk towards it, yeah, if you walk towards it it’s a good idea. And when you buy something and you say I’ll take it? How would you say that in Spanish, I’ll take it?

R: Si, me lo compro.

C: Me lo compro, me lo llevo.

R: Me lo llevo, that’s better, me lo llevo.

C: Me lo llevo, I’ll take it. Changing rooms.

R: Probadores?

C: Very good.

R: Because it’s a place where you try on, which is probar, so probadores in Spanish.

C: Label.

R: Etiqueta.

C: Yeah, so the label on your clothes, the label, the designer label for example.

R: Craig, what about the English word etiquette? It’s a false friend.

C: It is, isn’t it? I never thought about that before, etiquette, dining etiquette, behavioural… How you should behave, cómo te comportas.

R: Yeah, it’s nothing to do with labels, is it?

C: No, no.

R: The English word etiquette is like the correct way of doing things, isn’t it?

C: High society behavioural rules, interesting. Finallu, to suit, it suits you.

R: It suits you.

C: It suits you, sir.

R: Te va bien o te pega.

C: Yeah, te sienta bien.

C: That’s it, that’s all I have for vocabulary. Any phrasal verbs this week?

R: Yes, to bring up and to go off. Which one do you want to do first?

C: To bring up.

R: Ok, I’m glad you brought phrasal verbs up, Craig. So…

C: So I am, jaja.

R: To bring something up can be to mention a topic, a theme, an issue, to bring something up. I’m glad Craig brought up phrasal verbs, mentioned the topic of phrasal verbs, he brought them up.

C: Mencionar.

R: Mencionar. Craig, where were you brought up? C; I was brought up in London by my parents.

R: I was brought up in Belfast. In other words, that’s where we spent out childhood, we were children, there when our parents were looking after us. Our parents brought us up or we were brought up by our parents.

C: Ok, so it’s not the soma as grow up.

R: No, you grew up in London, your parents brought you up in London.

C: So to bring up means educate as well and… Grow up is physically? To get bigger?

R: Not necessarily, can be. I mean, when you get older you are getting bigger but I think it refers to your maturity as well, your mental maturity, it’s both.

C: Yes.

R: But for me it’s easier to think if you grew up but your parents brought you up.

C: Ok.

R: Although bring up can be passive, it often is, so you could say you were brought up by your parents, but they brought you up they are the ones who did it, whereas you grew up.

C: That’s interesting, I never realized that before, that brought up is more passive by somebody.

R: Well, to grow up cannot have an object, right? I grew up.

C: Right.

R: you cannot say I grew up something, I grew up myself. No, just I grew up in London, I grew up, there’s no object, whereas my parents brought me up, me is the object.

C: There’s an object.

R: But we often make it passive and say I was brought up in London. We don0t even mention parents because it’s obvious that they did it, unless you have some special circumstance, in most people’s case parents bring them up, so they say I was brought up in London. I suppose that your parents brought you up. If they didn’t, the you would say for example I was brought up in London by a group of circus performers, for example.

C: Or John Lennon, John Lennon was brought up by his aunt.

R, That’s right. It wasn’t his mum, so you would mention that, but if it’s your mum and dad or one of your parents you don’t usually even say it because it’s understood.

C: Right.

R: If it’s passive, I was brought up.

C: Are there any other uses of bring up?

R: Well, you brought up the topic of phrasal verbs as to mention, bring up what parents do to their children… To bring something up van mean to take it to another place, for example, I’m going to bed now, can you bring up the newspaper when you finish reading it.

C: Oh, so that’s physically taking something from one place further.

R: Yeah, to another place which is physically higher up.

C: Bring me up a cup of tea, bring a cup of tea up to me.

R: Yeah.

C: It could also mean vomitar, you can bring up your food.

R: Of course, yeah, that’s right.

C: I brought up my breakfast.

R: Yeah, you vomited your breakfast.

C: Vomit, vomitar.

R: That’s right, it is.

C: Any others? I think that’s it for bring up, what about go off?

R: Well, we live in Valencia, it can be very hot in Valencia, you have to be careful with food. If it’s a very hot day food can go off if you don’t keep it in the fridge.

C: Estropear.

R: Yeah, well, estropearse.

C: Estropearse.

R: Reflexive, so for example, it’s very hot today, put the fish in the fridge or it’ll go off. Put the fish in the fridge or it’ll go off would be pon o deposita el pescado en el frigorífico, si no, se estropeará. It’ll go off, it’ll become bad quality or deteriorate. Another one would be the classic excuse when people are late for class, they say oh, I’m really sorry, I’m late for class this morning, my alarm clock didn’t go off this morning.

C: That’s right, alarms go off, fire alarms go off, burglar alarms go off, when your alarm clock goes off in the morning, sonar.

R: So, when come piece of equipment activates, goes off.

C: What time did your alarm clock go off this morning?

R: It went off quite late this morning, 9 o’clock.

C: Do you use an alarm clock?

R: Oh, I do, yeah, except sometimes on a Sunday morning, when I don’t have to get up early, I deliberately don’t set my alarm clock. To set it means to get it ready to go off.

C: Right.

R: I don’t set it. What about you, do you set an alarm clock for Sunday morning?

C: Never on Sundays, but this morning I set my alarm for 7:15 because I wanted to get up early, it went off.

R: Did you get up immediately when it went off?

C: No, I turned it off and I went back to sleep for half an hour.

R: Do you have a snooze function on your alarm clock?

C: No, I don’t, I just turn it off and then just go back to sleep.

R: Ok, snooze function, to snooze is to sleep lightly for not very long, so if we snooze in an alarm clock it means if you hit that button the alarm will stop and then it will go off again, let’s say ten minutes later.

C: There’s an expression I like in English, if you snooze, you lose. If you hesitate, if you don’t do something quickly then you… te pierdes.

R: Another thing that can go off, we mentioned alarm clocks, you mentioned fire alarms, bombs go off.

C: Correct.

R: When a bomb explodes it goes off. You might hear on the news for example, there has been a terrorist attack today in the city, fice bombs went off at 7 o’clock in the morning. They went off, they exploded.

C: A lot of bombs used to go off in Belfast. Luckily, not any more.

R: That’s why I brought up the word, because we’re very familiar with it in Belfast, very familiar.

C: Bombs going off.

R: There’s another meaning of go off. I don’t know where Cristina is, she got up really early and then went off on her bike. To go off, she went off, is the past. She’s gone somewhere away from here, I don’t know where, that’s to go off.

C: Se ha ido.

R: Yeah, se ha ido, not here, she went to another place.

C: She’s gone off.

R: She’s gone off.

C: Thank you very much, Reza. Well, that’s all we have time for this episode so remember, feel free to send us an email or a sound file, mensaje de voz en mp3, with a comment or a question or anything you would like us to speak about and send your comment or question to [email protected] or to Reza at [email protected].

R: I prefer the “he” mail, it’s like I’m an extra masculine, I am a male and I’m “He” mail, jaja.

C: You’re not a “she” mail, you’re a “he”.

R: “He” mail, man.

C: Jaja. Thank you very much for listening and we’ll see you in the next episode. By for now.

R: Bye bye.

The music in this podcast is by Pitx, the track is called See you later, licensed by Creative Commons under a by-nc license at cc mixter.org.