Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 415, Being Clean and Dirty.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 415.
© transcript Emily Beynon An 8 to 10 page guide to this episode to help you improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Being Clean and Dirty.
It's a dialogue between Ray and Debra where they're talking about how each one of them is either clean or dirty.
Using a lot of vocabulary we would use to describe someone who is either clean or not so clean.
Dirty.
Let's get started.
My mother is coming for a visit, which means we need to do some spring cleaning this weekend.
I'll get the duster if you'll get the broom.
I'm serious.
You know how nitpicky my mother is, and I want our house to be neat and tidy.
Fine, fine, I understand.
You don't want her to know we live in a pigsty.
I'm not saying we live in a pigsty, but the house is a little messy and dusty.
It wouldn't hurt to straighten up a little bit, that's all.
I'm willing to pitch in, but I'm not going to spend the entire weekend slaving away to get this house spotless.
Your mother won't love you any less if you're not a neat freak.
You don't know my mother very well.
I know her well enough.
I don't want to spoil her fun.
If she can't complain about our dirty house, what will she complain about?
Ray and Debra are having a conversation about cleaning the house because Ray's mother is coming to visit.
Ray says, Which means we need to do some spring cleaning this weekend.
The expression spring cleaning is used to describe a period of time where you clean your house very well.
Usually it happens about once a year, often in the spring, in the early part of the year.
Spring cleaning however, is a general term.
That means that you're going to clean everything in your house.
You're going to throw out or get rid of things you don't need anymore.
That's another meaning of the expression.
Deborah says, I'll get the duster if you get the broom.
A duster, D-U-S-T-E-R, is a small tool.
It's a piece of wood or plastic that you hold onto, and it has usually either a lot of feathers, like from a bird, or a very light cloth material at one end.
It's used to clean tables and shelves and other things in your house that may have a lot of dirt on them, a lot of dust.
A broom is typically a long pole that has at one end either straw or plastic and And it's used to clean a floor, to sweep a floor.
The verb to sweep means to take, in this case, a broom and move it across the floor in order to clean it.
Sweeping with a broom does not involve water or soap.
It's simply removing the things that are on the floor.
Ray says I'm serious, meaning he thinks Deborah is joking.
You know how nitpicky my mother is and I want our house to be neat and tidy, he says.
Nitpicky comes from the verb to nitpick, N-I-T-P-I-C-K.
To nitpick means to pay a lot of attention to small things and not be happy, not be satisfied until everything is perfect.
It's generally considered a negative description of someone who tries to be too perfect and tries to criticize someone else for every small problem.
Ray says he wants the house to be neat and tidy.
To be neat and tidy means to be well organized and clean.
The word neat has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Deborah says, fine, fine, I understand.
She's saying, okay, okay.
You don't want her to know we live in a pigsty.
A pigsty, P-I-G-S-T-Y, one word, is literally a place where pigs live.
But people consider pigs to be very dirty.
So when they talk about a pigsty, they're talking about a very dirty and unorganized place.
Ray says, I'm not saying we live in a pigsty, but the house is a little messy and dusty.
To be messy, M-E-S-S-Y, means to be unorganized, where things are not where they should be.
Dusty means that there are small pieces of dirt on top of the furniture or other parts of the house.
He then says When someone says it wouldn't hurt to do something, such as it wouldn't hurt to go home a little early so we can get more sleep tonight, they mean that it would be a good idea, that it would be a helpful thing.
Ray says it wouldn't hurt to straighten up a little bit.
To straighten up, is a two word phrasal verb meaning to organize things while you are cleaning them, to put things away where they belong.
Deborah says, I'm willing to pitch in.
To pitch in is again a two-word verb meaning to help with a project, to give some assistance, to complete something.
Someone who is going to pitch in is going to help.
They're not going to do the whole thing themselves, but they will assist or help someone else with it.
The word pitch has a couple of different, very different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Deborah says, I'm not going to spend the entire weekend slaving away to get this house spotless.
The expression, the verb to slave away is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to work very hard, to do something difficult for a long time.
Spotless is perfectly clean.
If something is dirty, we may say it has a spot on it.
For example...
If you are at a baseball game and you're eating a hot dog and you have some mustard on your hot dog and some of the mustard falls onto your shirt, that would create a spot, a spot of dirt, a small place where it is dirty.
Spotless is the opposite of that.
It's perfectly clean, something with no spots.
Deborah says, The expression, means she won't care that much.
She'll still love you even though you are not something.
In this case, you are not a neat freak.
Neat, we already know, means clean and organized.
The word freak F-R-E-A-K means Describe someone who does things in the extreme, or someone who does things very strangely, someone who is very weird.
Again, it's not usually considered a positive quality in someone.
A neat freak would be someone who wants everything to be clean all the time everywhere, particularly in their own house or home.
Ray says, You don't know my mother very well.
Meaning, maybe my mother won't love me if I'm not a neat freak.
Poor Ray.
Deborah says, I know her well enough.
Of course, Deborah is Ray's mother's daughter-in-law.
She is her mother-in-law.
And traditionally there's always a little friction, some difficulties, often between the son-in-law and the mother-in-law, or the daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law, and so forth.
Well, Deborah says, You don't know them perfectly, but you know them enough.
You know them sufficiently.
Deborah says, Deborah says, To spoil, S-P-O-I-L, someone's fun, means to make something less fun for somebody, to make something less enjoyable.
A parent may say to their child Deborah says, She says If she can't complain about our dirty house.
To complain means to say that you are unhappy about something, to say that you don't like something.
If you check into a hotel and your room is dirty, you may call down and complain to the front desk, the people who are responsible for the hotel.
Deborah is saying that Ray's mother likes to have fun by complaining about things.
There are, of course, people like this in the world.
Not my mother-in-law.
Deborah says, if she can't complain about our dirty house, what will she complain about?
Meaning, if we clean up the house, she won't have any fun because she can't complain.
She, of course, is making a joke here.
Deborah is.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
My mother is coming for a visit, which means we need to do some spring cleaning this weekend.
I'll get the duster if you'll get the broom.
I'm serious.
You know how nitpicky my mother is, and I want our house to be neat and tidy.
Fine, fine, I understand.
You don't want her to know we live in a pigsty.
I'm not saying we live in a pigsty, but the house is a little messy and dusty.
It wouldn't hurt to straighten up a little bit, that's all.
I'm willing to pitch in, but I'm not going to spend the entire weekend slaving away to get this house spotless.
Your mother won't love you any less if you're not a neat freak.
You don't know my mother very well.
I know her well enough.
I don't want to spoil her fun.
If she can't complain about our dirty house, what will she complain about?
The script for this episode was written by someone who is never messy, but always neat and tidy, Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2008.
