Full video

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Hello and welcome to Real Easy English.

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In this podcast, we have real conversations

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in easy English to help you learn.

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I'm Beth.

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And I'm Georgie.

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You can find a video version of this podcast

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and a worksheet to help you learn on our website,

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bbclearningenglish.com.

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Hello, Georgie.

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How are you today?

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I'm very well, thank you,

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Beth. How are you?

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I'm very good, very good.

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Today we are talking about mess.

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Now, mess is when something is untidy.

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I left my house in a bit of a mess this morning.

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Oh dear, Beth. That's not very good.

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I slept in a bit too long.

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My kitchen is a mess.

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There are pans on the side.

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I don't want to think about it really.

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Beth, that sounds disgusting.

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Are you a messy person in general?

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I like things to be clean,

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but if there is a bit of mess, I'm OK with it.

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But I try to sort out the mess as soon as I can,

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but you know how sometimes you cook dinner, for example, and then

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I don't do the washing up immediately because I want to eat my food hot,

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so I will eat, relax for a bit and then I will clean the kitchen.

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Do you have, like, a rule in your house for the length of time

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you can leave the washing up?

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Like, does it have to be that evening or can it be the next day?

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I like it to be that evening,

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but it's not always that evening, which I don't like.

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What about you in your house?

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Is it tidy?

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Is it messy?

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It's usually quite tidy because I live with two other people.

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So, we all try to be considerate with the shared spaces.

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So, yeah.

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And my room, I try to tidy every few days.

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So, yeah.

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That sounds quite tidy.

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Beth, do you have a favourite job to do around the house?

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Or a least favourite job?

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I have a least favourite job and that is washing up.

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I hate washing the dishes, but we have a dishwasher so I use the dishwasher.

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But there are some things, like some pans, that I should wash up.

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So, I sometimes do them, but my husband does them quite a lot.

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Is there any way that you make washing up a more enjoyable activity?

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There is. I put music on, I put a song on,

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and I make sure I've finished by the end of the song,

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and it just makes me happy because I can just sing along

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and not focus on hating washing up.

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And it's not even that bad.

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I quite like tidying my room because I find it quite satisfying,

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because you... you end up with a good result at the end.

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You have a tidy space to relax in and spend time in.

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That's actually on my to-do list at the moment.

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Later I'm going to go home and tidy my room.

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Beth, do you have anything on your to-do list?

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I do need to hoover, so hoovering is on my to-do list.

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A 'to-do list' is a list of jobs that you need to do.

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So, I do need to hoover,

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but I'm not sure if I'll do it today.

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I might do it tomorrow.

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OK. Let's recap the vocabulary we heard during the conversation,

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starting with 'mess'.

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A mess is when something is untidy or dirty.

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For example, this morning I left my kitchen in a bit of a mess.

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We also used the adjective 'messy' to describe a dirty or untidy place.

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We can also describe a person as 'messy',

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which means that they don't clean things and they often make a mess.

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The opposite of 'messy' is 'tidy'.

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So, a place, like your bedroom, or Georgie's bedroom, can be 'tidy',

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and you can also be described as a 'tidy person'.

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That's if you usually clean things and don't make a mess.

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And a 'to-do list' is a list of jobs you need to do –

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sometimes jobs around the house, like cleaning.

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That's it for this episode of Real Easy English.

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If you've enjoyed this episode about mess

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and want to learn more vocabulary for cleaning,

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Georgie has made a video –

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phrasal verbs for housework.

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Find it on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

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And don't forget to try the worksheet on our website to test what you've learned.

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We'll be back next week with another conversation in easy English.

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See you then.

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Bye!