Episode 0138

Hello everyone and welcome to English Pod. My name is Marco.

What do you got Catherine for us today?

That's a good question. Well, uh we've got a little bit of a Seinfeld situation. So, for those of you who are not familiar with this American TV show, which by the way, is one of my favorites, uh Seinfeld is a TV show, a comedy about very awkward, very common situations that are taken to the extreme.

Right. So it's a very popular show. It was around for like 10 years, I think. Oh yeah. And uh but it's not airing anymore. Well, they're not making new episodes anymore.

No, you have to see them in reruns.

Reruns, right? So, um we have a situation that's very common. It was uh and it was pretty funny on the show. It's a guy trying to rent a car.

Okay, so he's probably at the airport or traveling and he he's had a long flight and he wants to rent a car, but of course, there are some problems. So, this is an elementary level lesson by the way. So keep that in mind as we listen to this dialogue one time.

Hi. I made a reservation for a mid-size vehicle. The name is Jimmy Fox.

I'm sorry. We have no mid-size available at the moment.

I don't understand. I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation?

Yes, we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars.

I know why we have reservations.

But we do have a compact or an SUV if you'd like.

All right. We have a blue Ford Focus for you, Mr. Fox. Would you like insurance?

All right, great. So this actually happens a lot. You make a reservation and either they lose it or they run out of cars. It's such a common situation.

And it's not just cars, sometimes this happens at restaurants too and it really makes me angry.

Yeah, that happens a lot. You show up and they're like, oh, we don't have a reservation and you're just like,

Well, then you have to keep yourself in check. You can't really get angry, but this guy does. So uh let's take a look at the language takeaway to find out what are some of the words we're using here to describe renting a car and what kind of car we're talking about.

Well, as you mentioned, uh at rental places, they have different size cars, right? Different size vehicles.

Which by the way, cost different prices.

Right. So, uh let's take a look at the sizes that they mentioned in the dialogue. Uh starting with the cheapest one, the least expensive and the smallest, it's a compact vehicle.

All right, compact. So compact actually means small.

Small.

Right? So compact car, you're going to hear it very often. Even if you're buying a car, uh let's think of an what's what's a compact car? The VW Golf.

Uh-huh.

Is a compact car, very small car.

So usually it's two doors or if it's a four-door car, it's very small, not very long, right?

Right, exactly.

So maybe like a Ford Focus could be a small car. Also, a compact.

Mhm.

Now moving up in size a little bit, we would have a mid-size vehicle.

Okay, mid-size vehicle is uh well, it's a giveaway here because mid means middle. So it's kind of in the middle between the small and the large and this is your average four-door sedan car.

Okay, so as an example, you would have a Ford Taurus or maybe a Toyota Camry.

Yeah, Toyota Camry is maybe the most common car.

Uh-huh.

It's kind of expensive, but it's still mid-size, right?

Exactly.

Mhm.

And uh now a bigger car and probably one of the most popular cars in the United States is an SUV.

Not anymore, Marco.

I know.

With the uh the energy crisis and the

Gas prices.

Uh well, and the the economy as well. People are not driving their SUVs anymore, but uh SUV is an acronym. That means it stands for three different words. S meaning

Sports.

U meaning

Utility.

V

Vehicle.

All right, thank you. So SUV Sport Utility Vehicle means it can go maybe off-road.

Right. So an example of this would be a Ford Explorer or a

Jeep Cherokee.

A Jeep Cherokee could be an SUV as well. So right, those are three different types of cars. Now, obviously there are many more like a van or a

A limo.

A limo, like a limousine. But yeah, these are the most common ones that you would rent at a a car rental place.

Yeah, definitely.

But uh what we have to do here is make a reservation.

Mhm. Now, interesting, you make a reservation.

Yeah, you don't have it. You don't do it. You don't

You make it.

Yeah, you make. These are these are words that go together. So we're going to keep them together. Um I can call a restaurant. So say for example, Marco works at a restaurant. I say, hello. I like to make a reservation for tonight.

Oh, okay, perfect. Now, if you show up at the restaurant you say,

Um where's my table? I made a reservation.

Right.

And of course, I throw a fit because there's no table for me. So you make a reservation and in this case, it was made before.

Okay, so you make a reservation. Now, why was this guy angry at the rental car place?

Oh, long story short, the company ran out of cars.

Okay. Not all cars, just the car that he wanted. The mid-size vehicle.

Right.

So they ran out. So that doesn't mean they're actually running somewhere.

No, they're not putting on their running shoes and going for a jog. No, in this case to run out, or in this case, we ran out means that they don't have anymore.

You don't have anymore. Exactly. I think this word is a nice word for us to take a look at some other examples now.

We're going to run out of gasoline. We need to find a gas station soon.

Can you buy some milk on your way home? We ran out last night.

My pen ran out of ink. Can you lend me one, please?

Oh, not a fun phrase, but an important one in case you're ever in a restaurant or in a hotel or in a place where you can purchase something or rent something and it's all gone.

All right. So I think we've taken a look at a lot of great words here. So let's listen to this dialogue again. We're going to slow it down just a little bit and then we'll come back and explain some phrases.

Hi. I made a reservation for a mid-size vehicle. The name is Jimmy Fox.

I'm sorry. We have no mid-size available at the moment.

I don't understand. I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation?

Yes, we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars.

I know why we have reservations.

But we do have a compact or an SUV if you'd like.

All right. We have a blue Ford Focus for you, Mr. Fox. Would you like insurance?

And we're back. So Marco, we've got a couple phrases here that deserve some attention. Uh so let's take a look at them in today's fluency builder.

So the first phrase that we want that I want to take a look at is um when the agent says, I'm sorry, we have no mid-size available at the moment.

Mm okay, so do they or do they not have any?

Yeah, she says we have no mid-size.

Okay, so another way to say this is we haven't got any.

Uh-huh. Oh, we don't have any.

Okay, but in this case, you can just simplify it and say we have no.

Mhm.

Why wouldn't you say we have none?

Good question. Why?

Because we need a thing here. We have no cars, we have no cake, we have no food. Uh so this is a very common phrase uh in English and remember to put the thing at the end. So, um

So for example, can I say, um I have no money?

I have no money, seriously, lend me some money. Um, so we have no. This is interesting because this is not a structure that is usually uh learned through textbooks, right? You usually say, I don't have or we haven't got.

Exactly. This is very spoken because you would never say, I go no.

Right, exactly.

Right? We we have to talk about something that we uh that has an object, some thing that we have. So, here I have no is very spoken, very common. It's another phrase uh that is also not taught so much in those textbooks that we were just mentioning. So uh what's that phrase at the end?

Well, well.

You better.

You better.

All right, so you better than me? No, no, it's not like better, like something is good, right? You'd better is like a suggestion, but a very strong one.

Okay.

Very strong. This is a threat. You better eat your dinner, or I'm going to send you to your room.

Exactly. So, as you can see, it says he says you better. You better give me the insurance. But the grammatically correct way would be

You had better.

You had better. So, you the contraction would be you'd better.

Exactly. You'd, you had better do this. So, this is a it's a hypothetical situation. You had better do this. If you don't do this, bad things will happen. So, remember that here we've got the grammatically correct form that you should write, you'd better, or the spoken form, you better.

You better. Uh-huh. I think in this one we should also listen to some other examples to get a better idea of how we can use this very strong suggestion.

You better go to the doctor before that cold gets any worse.

You better watch out. It's dangerous to go out this late.

She better change her attitude or her boss is going to fire her.

So what is the threat? You better give me insurance because what is he going to do?

Okay, so this is future. I'm going to, I'm going to beat the hell out of this car. So this is very strong, right?

Yeah, it's very strong and he's saying he is going to destroy the car.

So beat the hell out of, so that means really just do damage to something.

So you can use it as towards a person also. It's like, I'm going to beat the hell out of you.

Right? So it's a very strong phrase. It it shows anger. It shows that you're threatening somebody. So, it's not, obviously, it's not polite.

Right, but you can use it to describe a situation, right? He's like, yeah, we went to a bar yesterday and Dan beat the hell out of the bartender.

Right?

Yeah.

Man.

So instead of just saying Dan hit the bartender or Dan got into a fight, you're saying he hit him and he just

And he kept hitting him and kept hitting him and kept hitting him. So yeah, he beat the hell out of him.

Right.

All right, great. So those are the uh the phrases and words that we wanted to talk about today. But uh I think it'd be good if we listen to this dialogue one more time just to get a good feel for it. We come back, we'll be talking a little bit more about the process of renting a car.

Hi. I made a reservation for a mid-size vehicle. The name is Jimmy Fox.

I'm sorry. We have no mid-size available at the moment.

I don't understand. I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation?

Yes, we do. Unfortunately, we ran out of cars.

I know why we have reservations.

But we do have a compact or an SUV if you'd like.

All right. We have a blue Ford Focus for you, Mr. Fox. Would you like insurance?

You know, I heard that in Florida or in certain like uh cities of California and Florida, you can actually rent luxury cars.

Oh yeah, you can do that in most places.

You can rent like a Porsche, like a Porsche or a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. Obviously, it costs a lot of money, but it gives you the opportunity to maybe drive to maybe drive one of these cars that you've obviously wouldn't have the money to buy.

Yeah, especially if you're talking about those warm places like Florida, California, you want to be in the sunshine, you get a convertible.

You got to get a convertible.

Yeah, so uh I think the insurance premiums on those particular cars are very high though. So you're not only paying for the car, but you're also paying for the insurance and possibly the speeding tickets.

Yeah, of course. I can't imagine renting one of those cars and not getting a speeding ticket.

Exactly. So, if any of you out there have experienced renting cars or you have some questions about the specifics that are involved in this process, let us know on our website, Englishpod.com.

Right, we're there to answer any questions or doubts and uh we'll see you guys there.

The English Pod Audio Review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

To make an arrangement to hold something for later.

Make a reservation.

To make arrangements for later.

Book.

To not have any.

Have no.

The protection that is offered by an insurance policy.

Coverage.

Contract signed with details of car rental.

Rental agreement.

To have no more.

Run out.

You should.

You better.

To leave money when you rent a car and that you get back if you return the car in good condition.

Leave a deposit.

To purposefully abuse something.

Beat the hell out of.

A medium-sized car.

Mid-size vehicle.

The amount of money to be paid per day the car is rented.

Daily rate.

At the present time.

At the moment.

A small car.

Compact.

Sport utility vehicle.

SUV.

Protection from costs of accidental damage.

Insurance.

Let's try that faster.

To make an arrangement to hold something for later.

Make a reservation.

Contract signed with details of car rental.

Rental agreement.

To not have any.

Have no.

A small car.

Compact.

At the present time.

At the moment.

Sport utility vehicle.

SUV.

To have no more.

Run out.

The protection that is offered by an insurance policy.

Coverage.

The amount of money to be paid per day the car is rented.

Daily rate.

A medium-sized car.

Mid-size vehicle.

Protection from costs of accidental damage.

Insurance.

You should.

You better.

To purposefully abuse something.

Beat the hell out of.

To make arrangements for later.

Book.

To leave money when you rent a car and that you get back if you return the car in good condition.

Leave a deposit.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Make a reservation.

I've made a dinner reservation at our favorite restaurant for tomorrow night.

Make a reservation.

I'm sorry, sir. You need to make a reservation in order to eat here.

Make a reservation.

Many hotels now offer a service where you can make an online reservation.

Have no.

Have no.

Have no.

Run out.

Run out.

Can you buy some milk on your way home? We ran out last night.

Run out.

My pen ran out of ink. Can you lend me one, please?

You better.

You better go to the doctor before that cold gets any worse.

You better.

You better watch out. It's dangerous to go out this late.

You better.

Beat the hell out of.

Beat the hell out of.

Beat the hell out of.