Full video

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Hello and welcome to Real Easy English.

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In this podcast, we help you understand everyday English conversations.

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I'm Neil.

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And I'm Georgie.

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Don't forget to go to our website to find a

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text version of this episode to read along: BBC Learning English dot com.

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Hi, Georgie. How are you?

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I'm great, thank you, Neil. I just had a delicious lunch.

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Oh, nice. What did you eat for lunch?

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I had pasta. What did you eat?

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I had a chicken sandwich.

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Mmm. Well, today's episode is all about restaurants and food.

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Great. I love it when we talk about food.

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Me too.

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Neil, do you go to restaurants often?

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Not that often. Maybe when I meet some friends.

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How about you? Do you go to restaurants often?

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No, I don't go often. Probably once a month.

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OK, and when you go to a restaurant, what's your favourite part of eating there?

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I like to be around lots of people.

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I really love it when a restaurant has a good atmosphere.

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I love spending time with friends.

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What about you? Why do you like eating in a restaurant?

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Well, I like to go to a restaurant that serves food that I don't know how to cook.

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Yep, that's a good point.

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So, restaurants with food from countries that I don’t know very well

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or that are very different types of food to the food I make.

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It’s really nice to eat out and that means to eat not at your home

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because you don't have to make the food and you don't have to wash up.

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That's true, yes.

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It’s also nice to eat out for a special occasion. So, like a birthday or a celebration.

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Yes and another special occasion could be something like Christmas and we at

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BBC Learning English are eating out for that special occasion.

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We're having a celebration, aren't we?

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Yes, every year we have a Christmas party and we usually eat out in a restaurant.

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So, Neil, you said you like eating out in lots of different types of

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restaurants. What do you usually order?

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Well, I really like spicy food like Indian curries and I like fish. So I like to get fish curry.

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Mmm that sounds delicious! And we have a special way of ordering don't we?

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What are some phrases we can use to order things in restaurants?

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Yeah, so we can say: 'I'll have the fish curry.'

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'I'll have the fish curry, please.'

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Yes, and you can also say, 'Can I have the fish curry, please?', as well.

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OK, Georgie, what do you usually order in a restaurant?

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I also usually get the fish. Or a risotto.

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OK, so let's say we are in a restaurant now. I'm

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the waiter. I say to you: 'Are you ready to order?'

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'Yes, I am.'

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'And what would you like?'

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'Can I get the risotto, please?'

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'Yes, of course.'

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So we can also say, 'Can I get the risotto?',

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as well as can I have the risotto. And notice that we say 'the risotto', not a risotto.

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That's right.

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

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We had 'eat out' which means 'eat a meal at a restaurant rather than at home'.

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'Special occasion' – 'a birthday, anniversary, or other reason to celebrate'.

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And we learned that when we order in a restaurant, we usually say:

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'I'll have the something… fish… chicken… risotto.'

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Or, 'Can I get the...', and what you want to order.

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So, for example, when I eat at my favourite restaurant, I always get 'the risotto'.

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Thanks for listening to Real Easy English.

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If you like restaurants, you could try our drama

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series The White Elephant all about a busy restaurant kitchen.

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Bye.