Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 497, Shopping for Betting.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 497.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, in the state of California, here in the US of A.
We have a website.
Oh yes, we do, it's eslpodcom.
On it, you can download a learning guide for this episode.
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Well...
You get all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, cultural notes, comprehension questions and a complete transcript of this episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Javier and Crystal.
It's about two people who are going to buy things they need for their bedroom, in this case bedding.
Let's get started.
Thanks for helping me decorate my new apartment.
Hey, where are you going, Right?
Okay, but can't I just get some sheets, a couple of pillows, and a blanket?
That's only the beginning.
Oh, feel these sheets.
No wonder they're so soft.
They have a very high thread count.
Thread count?
You'll need a fitted sheet, a flat sheet, and pillowcases.
Did you get a queen or king size bed?
It's a full size bed.
Okay, you'll need a comforter and a duvet cover, too.
And this bed skirt will make your bed look really nice.
Bed skirt?
Of course.
You can't leave your mattress exposed.
That would look so tacky.
If you say so.
Wow, look at these canopies.
Don't you think?
You want to put a canopy over my bed?
No, that's where I draw the line.
We begin with Javier saying to Crystal, Thanks for helping me decorate my new apartment.
To decorate means to make something more beautiful by changing it or adding things to it.
Usually, we're talking about a room in your house.
I'm going to decorate your room.
Sometimes we use this when we are talking about preparing for a special event, putting things on the walls or putting other things in the room to prepare for a special event such as Christmas.
We're decorating the tree, the Christmas tree.
We're putting things on it to make it look nice.
Javier is decorating his apartment.
Crystal says, I'm going to the bedding department.
Bedding refers to things that you put on your bed, things like sheets and pillows and blankets.
We'll talk about all those in a minute.
Bedding is spelled B-E-D-D-I-N-G.
There's a word that's pronounced in most cases almost exactly the same, in fact exactly the same, which is betting B-E-T-T-I-N-G.
In English in normal conversation, the D and the T, if they are in between two vowels in a word, are pronounced the same.
Although, if someone doesn't quite understand you, they may over-pronounce it or hyper-pronounce it.
They may say bedding versus betting.
Betting refers to when you go to Las Vegas and lose all your money because you think that you are good at playing cards or whatever.
But in normal conversation, bedding, bedding, same pronunciation.
Some English teachers try to tell you otherwise, but really they're the same pronunciation in normal conversation.
Anyway, Crystal says, now that you have a new bed, you'll need new bedding.
Javier says, right, okay, but can't I just get some sheets, a couple of pillows, and a blanket?
Sheets are large, thin pieces of material, of fabric that you put on your bed and you lie on top of these sheets forever when you are sleeping, when you are lying on the bed.
You want to keep the bed itself clean and also it's usually not very comfortable unless you have some sheets on there.
Javier says he also wants to just get a couple of pillows.
Pillows are the large, soft things that you put your head on when you are sleeping.
Finally, Javier mentions getting a blanket, which is a large, thick piece of fabric that keeps you warm.
The sheet you put on top of the bed, then you lie on the sheet and then you put the blanket over you to keep you warm.
Sheet and blanket have a couple of different meanings in English however, so please take a look at our learning guide today for some additional explanations.
Crystal says that's only the beginning.
The sheets, the pillows, the blankets.
That's just the beginning.
Oh, she says, feel these sheets.
No wonder they're so soft.
They have a very high thread count.
When you're buying bedding, especially sheets...
The sheets are sometimes very high quality, sometimes very low quality.
The good sheets, the high quality ones, have a high thread count.
The thread are the strings of the fabric that that make up the sheet, and if there are a lot of these in a small area, then the quality is usually higher.
It's a better sheet if it has a high thread count.
Thread also refers to, for example, when you have a piece of clothing and there's a hole in it.
You want to close that hole, you use thread.
Little, tiny, thin, long piece of fabric.
You also use thread if you are going to the doctor and having surgery and they put a hole in your body.
You'll need surgical thread to close that.
But here we're not putting any holes in your body.
We're just buying some sheets.
Javier says thread count.
He, of course, is a little confused, as most men are, about many things, I should say.
Crystal says you'll need a fitted sheet, a flat sheet, and pillowcases.
A fitted sheet is a special kind of sheet that has elastic in each corner.
This is like a rubber band that helps keep the sheet on the bed so that it stays on the bed.
It doesn't move around.
It is tight on the bed.
A flat sheet is a sheet that doesn't have elastic in it.
It's a sheet that will move around easily.
Some people put a fitted sheet and then on top of that they'll put a flat sheet.
Then on top of that they'll put a blanket.
You go in between the fitted sheet and the flat sheet.
The flat sheet is especially useful if the blanket is a little rough on your skin.
Crystal says that Javier will also need pillowcases.
Pillowcases are rectangular pieces of fabric that have an opening on one end and you put the pillow inside of it, so it covers the pillow.
It's a pillow cover, we also could call it, but more commonly a pillowcase.
Then Crystal asks Javier, did you get a queen or a king-sized bed?
A queen bed is smaller than a king-sized bed.
Javier says it's a full-size bed, which is smaller than a queen bed.
The things that you sleep on, called mattresses, come in different sizes.
The king is the largest.
Actually, larger than a king is what's called a California king.
I guess we people here in California need big beds.
Maybe because we're so fat.
I'm not sure.
Crystal says that Javier will need a comforter and a duvet cover.
A comforter is like a blanket.
It is used to keep you warm at night.
Usually, though, it is filled with feathers or other man-made material.
It's a little bigger, usually a little thicker or can be than a regular blanket, which might be a little thinner than a comforter.
A duvet cover is a large rectangular piece of fabric, of material, that is open at one end so that you can put the comforter inside of it.
So basically it is like a pillowcase, except it's a pillowcase for the comforter for this large thick blanket, so that it doesn't get dirty.
Many people have comforters without duvet covers, however.
Crystal also says that Javier will need a bed skirt to make the bed look nice.
A skirt normally is what a woman wears on her hips that go down to her thigh in the middle of her leg.
Unless it's a mini skirt, in which case it goes down not very far at all.
But here we're talking about a bed skirt.
It's a piece of fabric that goes along the bottom of the bed so that you can't see underneath the bed.
Basically,
Usually this is something you'll find in a hotel or in a very fancy house.
It's not something that many people have, but it is possible to get one, these bed skirts.
Javier says, bed skirt?
Crystal says, of course.
You can't leave your mattress exposed.
The mattress, remember, is a large, thick surface that you lie on.
It's what you put the sheet on, the fitted sheet.
Exposed means visible, shown.
Usually in talking about something that shouldn't be shown or should not be visible.
So she says, you can't leave, you can't have your mattress exposed.
You don't want people to be able to see the mattress.
That would look so tacky.
Tacky T-A-C-K-Y means ugly mattress to look at something that isn't very fashionable, something that is not in good taste.
Javier then says if you say so, meaning you're the expert.
Then Crystal says wow, look at these canopies.
A canopy C-A-N-O-P-Y is a large piece of fabric material that hangs above the bed sometimes usually for decoration, although it also helps keep insects away.
If you have insects in your house, little flies, for example mosquitoes.
But it's something you would usually, again, see only in a very formal setting.
Not even a hotel would have that, in most cases.
That's a canopy.
Crystal says don't you think, suggesting perhaps that Javier get a canopy?
And Javier says you want to put a canopy over my bed?
Now, that's where I draw the line.
The expression to draw the line means to limit something, to indicate that you are not going to do that thing, that that is too much.
For example, you may be going shopping for clothing with your wife.
And she says, hold my purse, the bag that she keeps her personal things in.
So you hold her purse.
And then she says, hold my jacket.
And so you hold her jacket.
And then she picks up a dress and says, hmm, I wonder how this looks.
Put this dress on.
Then the typical husband would say wait a minute, I draw the line at putting on a dress, meaning I'm not going to do that.
I did these other things, but I'm not going to put a dress on.
Seems reasonable to me.
Now let's listen to the dialogue again, this time at a normal speed.
Thanks for helping me decorate my new apartment.
Hey, where are you going?
I'm going to the bedding department.
Now that you have a new bed, you'll need new bedding.
Right, okay, but can't I just get some sheets, a couple of pillows, and a blanket?
That's only the beginning.
Oh, feel these sheets.
No wonder they're so soft.
They have a very high thread count.
Thread count?
You'll need a fitted sheet, a flat sheet, and pillowcases.
Did you get a queen or king size bed?
It's a full size bed.
Okay.
You'll need a comforter and a duvet cover too.
And this bed skirt will make your bed look really nice.
Bed skirt?
Bed skirt?
Of course.
You can't leave your mattress exposed.
That would look so tacky.
If you say so.
Wow, look at these canopies.
Don't you think... You want to put a canopy over my bed?
No.
That's where I draw the line.
Our script was written by someone who's never tacky, Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you 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.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
