Daddy Please!

Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

And I’m Erica.

And today we’re gonna be talking about a really common situation with parents.

Yeah, when you’re teenager you always need to ask your parents for money, um, ask your parents for the car or ask your parents if you can do something.

Exactly and that’s what we’re gonna be looking at is how you can ask for permission for the car, for money.

Right! And these phrases are not only for your parents, right?

No, you could use them in your office…

Uhu.

With your boss or for any situation where you need to ask politely.

Yes.

Okay. So let’s take a look at “vocabulary preview”. Voice: Vocabulary preview.

We have one word for you today - concert.

Concert.

Concert.

A concert.

A concert is an event, right?

Yeah.

Where people play music.

Right. So, you have different types of concerts like a rock concert.

They play rock music.

Or a pop concert.

Yeah, a pop music. Or even a classical music concert.

Exactly, where you have people playing violins and pianos.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, concert.

So, concerts are always for music.

Yeah, exactly. They’re always for music.

Well, with that let’s go into our dialogue. Marco, what happens here?

Well, basically, we have a teenage girl who needs to go to a concert and is asking her dad for something.

Alright, let’s listen.

Teenagers, ha?

Yeah. They’re always asking for something.

Yeah, this brings back memories, but I’ll tell you about that later. Uh, why don’t we take a look at the vocabulary in “language takeaway”? Voice: Language takeaway.

Alright, we’ve got a few interesting words here. Um, the first one - hottest.

Hottest.

Hottest.

So, this is the superlative of hot.

Right. So, the hottest guy in school is…

The most handsome…

Yeah, the most sexy guy in school.

Exactly. So, if somebody is hot, they are really attractive.

Really good-looking.

Really good-looking.

Um, and…

Okay.

So, Marco, is this a word that is only used for men?

No, it’s… you can also use it for women.

Um, and what about things?

You know, recently with Parris Hilton…

Hehe.

It’s more popular with things like “Wow! I got a new car!”, “Wow! That’s hot!

Right.

Yeah, yeah. Hehe.

Um, but I guess we maybe should tell our listeners to be careful with this word.

Yeah. You don’t really wanna tell somebody “you’re hot”.

No, you…

It’s not very polite. Hehe.

But you… with your friends you can use this word.

Exactly, if I’m talking with my friends and I see a girl like… “Wow! She’s hot!” Okay, that’s…

But just don’t tell her.

Yeah, don’t go up to her and say “Wow! You’re hot!

Okay. Our next word - most popular.

Most popular.

Most popular.

Most popular.

Another superlative.

Exactly, and popular means…

Means having a lot of friends.

Exactly, having a lot of friends or being well-known.

Or well-liked.

Well-liked.

Yep.

So… in every school there’s always like the most popular guy in school, the most popular girl.

Yeah. Were you the most popular guy?

Um, not really. Hehe. No, I wasn’t the most popular guy, but I wasn’t unpopular, so…

Okay, so, that’s the opposite.

Yeah. So I was… I was okay.

Alright. Our last phrase - fine then.

Fine then.

Fine then.

Fine then.

The… well, this is a phrase made up of two simple words. Why don’t we listen to some examples, so we can understand the meaning of these two words together? Voice: Example one.

Fine then! If you won’t go with me I’ll go by myself. Voice: Example two.

Fine then! If you want to break up I don’t care. Voice: Example three.

You want to go out with your friends? Fine then! Go!

So, you would use this when you agree with somebody, but you’re not really happy about it.

Yeah. It’s like saying “I agree, but I’m really angry”.

Right. Maybe sometimes because you don’t have a choice.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Like a girl. Fine then, uhh. Right?

Yeah, yeah.

So, even though we have the word fine in there, it’s not really a nice thing to say to someone.

No… No, this is definitely not one to use with your boss.

Right.

Yep.

Exactly, okay. Okay, let’s listen to our dialogue again and then we’ll talk about some more phrases. DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)

There’s a lot of phrases in this dialogue, um, that we can use to ask for something, right?

Exactly, and in a very polite way.

Okay. So, we’re going to look at three ways of asking for something and the first way is I was wondering.

I was wondering.

I was wondering

So, I could say “I was wondering can I borrow your car?

Yep, or “I was wondering can I stay at your house?

Okay. It’s a very nice way to ask something.

Yeah, it’s like to begin a question.

To begin, yeah.

Uhu.

Alright, let’s take a look at the next one. And it’s basically the same thing. Do you think I could…

Do you think I could…

Do you think I could…

Do you think I could…

Borrow the car.

Yeah.

Right.

Or, um, do you think I could use your computer?

I can say “I was wondering can I use your computer”; “do you think I could use your computer?”

Yep, they mean the same.

Right. Now let’s look at the last one. Would you mind?

Would you mind?

Would you mind?

Would you mind?

So, I could say “would you mind holding this for me?

Yep, or “would you mind finishing this report for me?

Now, there’s an interesting thing here that you have the verb in the gerund form, right?

Right, the “-ing form”.

Exactly. Giving, holding.

Yeah.

Finishing.

So, we’ve got I was wondering can I do something.

Right.

And would you mind doing something.

Doing something, yeah.

Uhu.

So, you have the “-ing”.

Uhu.

Be very, very careful… be sure to not say would you mind to give me.

Right, that’s wrong.

Right, that’s wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. So, you would say would you mind giving me.

Yep.

Okay. Let’s listen to some more examples of these three phrases. Voice: Example one.

Would you mind cooking dinner tonight? I’ll be home late. Voice: Example two.

We were wondering if you could by the tickets for us. Voice: Example three.

Do you think he can have those reports finished by today?

Alright, so, I think it’s really clear now.

Yep.

And it’s a very useful way of asking for things. Okay, so let’s listen to our dialogue for the third time and then we’ll come back and talk a little bit more.

So, Marco, you said that this dialogue really brought back some memories for you.

Yeah, my dad was exactly the same way. I would just say “dad?” and he would be like “no”.

Wow.

So, I… He would always cut me off before I asked anything.

Uh, sounds like a pretty strict guy.

Hehe. No, but it was a lot of fun. Sometimes he would just say it just to make me angry or something like that.

Like just as a joke.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

But it was difficult to get him to lend me the car, for example.

Really?

Oh, yeah… I mean he wouldn’t just lend me the car and sometimes if he did lend me the car then the next day he would be like “Hey, you need to wash the car” or something like that.

Uh, okay, so there’s… so you had to pay him back.

I had to pay him back with something.

Yeah. In my family, um, I was always allowed to borrow the car, because we lived really, really far away from the city, so…

Ah.

There were no buses or subway, but… um, I always had got to borrow the… th… the worst car, you know, the most terrible car.

Oh, really?

Yeah. Um, which led to so many problems like my car stopping working in the middle of the street, which was never good.

Hehe. We did used to live a little bit further away from downtown, but we had a good bus system.

Yep.

So, it was just be like “take the bus is cheaper”, uh… stuff like that, so… So I didn’t really get the car that often until I bought my own or… or until I had a motorcycle of my own and then… problem’s solved.

Alright, well, I wanna know from our listeners, um, what did they ask for from their parents?

Exactly. Did you ask for the car? Did you ask for money?

Or did you ask for a pony?

Did you ask for a pony? I had a friend who had a summer home.

Really?

So, he would ask for the keys of the summer home.

Okay, well, um, come to our website englishpod.com.

Exactly, leave your questions and comments. We wanna hear from you. We want to know what you think. And Erica and I are definitely there to answer any doubts.

Alright, well, guys, thanks for listening and until next time… Good bye!

Bye!