Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

34

PASSER-BY:

MegaSave, I think. Shall I write it down for you?

NINA:

No, I think I’ve got it. Thanks a lot.

PASSER-BY:

Bye!

1 Hang on= ‘Wait a moment’

Language point 17 – commands

The BASE-FORM of the verb can be used on its own to tell someone to do something:

Open the door

Close the window

Lock the door

But in colloquial English this way of giving commands is rather short and can sound rude.

If we want to give someone directions or instructions , however, it is okay to use the base-form:

Turn left at the traffic lights

Go straight ahead

Plug the computer in and switch on

It doesn’t matter whether you are talking to one person or more than one – the base-form stays the same.

Be careful!Normally, except with close friends, or when

telling someone to do something nice, we don’t use the base-form when we want someone to do something, as it sounds very short and a bit rude. See Language point 18 on how to do this.

If we want to tell someone not to do something, we can always use Don’t+ base-form:

Don’t wait for me

Don’t pay the bill

Don’t worry

35

Exercise 1

Say where you think you would find the following orders. Write the correct letters in the blanks.

1 library

_ j_

a Don’t annoy the teacher!

2 park

___

b Don’t smoke near the patients!

3 bar

___

c Don’t forget to turn off your

mobile!

4 restaurant

___

d Don’t forget your passport!

5 hospital

___

e Don’t forget the present!

6 classroom

___

f Don’t drink too much!

7 airport

___

g Don’t complain about the food!

8 swimming pool ___

h Don’t pick the flowers!

9 cinema

___

i Don’t dive!

10 birthday party

___

j Don’t make too much noise!

Language point 18 – asking people

to do things

Instead of giving commands (Language point 17), we usually ask people to do things for us. To do this, we put an AUXILIARY before the base-form: Could you . . . ?Or Would you . . . ?, and at the end of the sentence we can add please:

Could you open the window (please)?

Would you close the door (please)?

Or we can use the auxiliary as a TAG, and start with the base-form: Open the door, could you?

Close the door, would you?

Don’t forget the auxiliary tag here – otherwise it will sound rude.

Exercise 2

Correct these instructions and requests. Be careful! One of them doesn’t need correcting.

1

Slip not on the ice!

________________________

2

Wait please here a minute.

________________________

36

3

Be not rude to customers!

________________________

4

Do this work now, please.

________________________

5

Don’t please throw litter.

________________________

6

Open the door, you could?

________________________

7

You could close the door,

________________________

please?

8

Do wait not for me.

________________________

Dialogue 3

Terry is looking for the bus station.

TERRY:

Excuse me, am I going the right way for the bus station?

PASSER-BY:

Let’s see now . . . yes – keep going down here till you reach the traffic lights, then turn right and you’ll see the bus station at the end of the road.

TERRY:

Thanks a lot.

PASSER-BY:

Quite all right.

Idiom

We use the phrase Let’s see nowto signal to the person we’re talking to that we need a moment to think.

Language point 19 – genitive

In Dialogue 3 the passer-by says:

the end of the road

not

‘the road’s end’

But we say

John’s book

not

‘the book of John’

So we have two GENITIVE constructions in English:

POSSESSIVE:

John’s book

(X’s Y)

OF-PHRASE:

the end of the road

(the Y of X)

37

How do we decide which to use?

We prefer the possessive (X’s Y):

when X is a person :

Laura’s exam results

when Y belongs to X:

Gerry’s hand, Fred’s car

but otherwise we generally prefer of(the Y of X) the door of the school

the middle of the night

the end of the war

Exercise 3

Decide which of the two options is correct for each phrase.

1 John’s book

The book of John

2 The road’s end

The end of the road

3 My sister’s clothes

The clothes of my sister

4 The house’s top

The top of the house

5 The week’s end

The end of the week

6 Alice’s new car

The new car of Alice

7 The pool’s bottom

The bottom of the pool

8 The night’s middle

The middle of the night

9 My brother’s house

The house of my brother

10 Our cat’s ears

The ears of our cat

Dialogue 4

Sasha is lost – she’s looking for the art gallery. In the end, a passer-by notices her.

PASSER-BY:

You look lost – can I help?

SASHA:

Oh thank you – yes, I am a bit lost, I’m afraid. I’m trying to find the art gallery.

PASSER-BY:

That’s miles away! No wonder you look lost! Get the 22 bus from the corner here, and get off at Southwold Terrace. Then turn left into York Avenue, and carry on until you get to the gallery.

SASHA:

Could you write it down for me? I’m bound to get lost again otherwise.

38

PASSER-BY:

Certainly . . . [ writes it down for Sasha ]

. . . there you are.

SASHA:

Thank you for your help.

PASSER-BY:

Not at all. Enjoy the art gallery!

SASHA:

I will. Bye!

PASSER-BY:

Bye!

Second

left

First

left

First

right

Straight

Second

ahead

right

Idioms

– no wondermeans ‘I’m not surprised that . . .’

– I’m bound to . . .means ‘I’m certain to . . .’ or ‘It’s certain that I’ll . . .’

– We use There you arewhen we give someone something, or when we finish doing something for them.

– otherwisemeans ‘if not’:

Hurry up, otherwise we’ll miss the bus.

= ‘Hurry up – if we don’t hurry up, we’ll miss the bus.’

39

Language point 20 – phrasal verbs

A PHRASAL VERB is a VERB + ADVERB which together have a special meaning. For example, carry onin Dialogue 4 means continue– it has nothing to do with carry.

Phrasal verbs are very important in colloquial English – they are often used instead of more formal ‘standard’ words. Here are some more examples: