Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 514, Describing Old and New Clothes.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 514.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Transcription by CastingWords.
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This episode is a dialogue between Ellen and Hero.
It's going to be using vocabulary that you would use to describe clothing, both old clothing and new clothing.
Let's get started.
Your guess is as good as mine.
Okay, but I have to warn you, I have a pretty limited wardrobe.
Let's see.
These black pants are nice, but they're frayed on the bottom.
How about these jeans?
You don't think they're too faded?
There's also a rip in the back.
No, I guess those jeans won't work.
I like this shirt, though.
Did you see the stain on the front?
The zipper is also stuck, I think.
How about shoes?
Do you have any shoes that are presentable?
Well, I always wear these, but they're scuffed on the top and the sole is pretty worn.
Okay.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Come on.
Where are we going?
We're going to a magical place with brand-spanking-new clothes and where everything is flawless.
The mall.
Our dialogue begins with Ellen asking Hero, what are you wearing to the party?
What clothes are you going to wear to the party?
Hero says, your guess is as good as mine.
This phrase your guess is as good as mine means I don't know meaning that you don't know any more than the person who is asking you the question.
Ellen says let's look through your closet.
Let's look in your closet and I'll help you pick something out.
The closet is a small opening in the wall, usually covered by a door, where you can store or keep your clothing.
To pick something out or to pick out something is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to select something from many different options.
Usually, it's a physical thing.
You go to a store and you pick out a dress to wear.
I do this at least once a month.
That's to pick out something or to pick something out.
Either way.
Hero says, okay, but I have to warn you.
I have a pretty limited wardrobe.
I have a pretty limited wardrobe.
Means I have a very limited, not very big wardrobe.
Wardrobe.
Wardrobe here means all the clothing that you own.
A collection of all of your shirts and pants and ties and dresses and underwear and socks.
All of that is part of your wardrobe.
Ellen says, let's see.
These black pants are nice, but they're frayed on the bottom.
When something is frayed, we mean it is worn out, it is falling apart.
When we talk about clothing, frayed clothing usually means that the clothing is beginning to come apart.
You can see the individual threads, the individual pieces of the clothing, especially at the edge of the clothing, at the end of a sleeve on a shirt or on the bottom of your pants.
Ellen says, how about these jeans?
Meaning, what do you think of these jeans?
Hero says, you don't think they're too faded?
When we say something, a piece of clothing is faded, F-A-D-E-D, we mean that the color isn't as bright as it used to be.
This happens when you buy blue jeans.
When you buy them and you put them on the first time, the blue may be very blue, very dark.
But later, as you wash them over and over again, they may become lighter.
They may become faded, we would say.
Hero says there's also a R.I.P. in the back of the jeans.
A rip is the same as a tear.
It's a small hole.
When two things are separated from each other, or something rather, is separated into two pieces, we say that it has a rip.
That's especially used when talking about clothing.
If you're a man with big muscles like me, and you put on a shirt that's too small, that's too tight, and then you try to move your arms up and down, you might rip the shirt.
The shirt might get a rip in it.
Notice it can be a verb or a noun.
A tear.
It will come apart.
I have this problem.
Ellen says, no, I guess those jeans won't work.
I like this shirt, though.
I like this shirt, however.
Hero says, did you see the stain S-T-A-I-N on the front?
A stain is where there is a color on the fabric that shouldn't be there.
For example, if you are drinking coffee and you have a white shirt on and some of the coffee drops fall onto your shirt, you spill it, then you will have a coffee stain, a brown stain, on your white shirt.
Another word for this is a discoloration.
Hiro says the zipper is also stuck, I think.
The zipper is the long strip of metal, usually, that you use to keep something together.
But it also allows you to open something up.
So a pair of jeans, for example, there is a zipper in the front, right?
At the very top that goes down about maybe I don't know one or two inches and that allows you to take the pants off and put them on easily.
It also allows men to use the bathroom with their pants more easily, in ways we shall not describe here.
Hero complains that the zipper is stuck.
When something is stuck, we mean that it isn't able to move.
It should move, it's supposed to move, but something is wrong with it and it doesn't move.
You could even get your hand stuck, for example, in a hole.
You put your hand into a small hole and then you can't get it out.
Your hand is stuck.
Well, here the zipper is stuck, meaning that it won't move up and down the way it should.
Ellen says, how about shoes, meaning what shoes are you going to wear?
Do you have any shoes that are presentable shoes?
The term presentable here means they are good enough for other people to see.
They are acceptable or appropriate for whatever occasion that you are going to or being a part of.
Hero says, well, I always wear these, but they're scuffed on the top and the sole is pretty worn.
Scuffed means that there are marks, usually on, for example, a pair of shoes or perhaps a wooden floor.
Scuffs are usually caused by two things rubbing together hard.
It causes a discoloration of the shoe that is damaged.
There is a mark on the shoe, maybe not a discoloration, although the scuff is usually a different color.
Scuff can be a verb or a noun.
Hiro says his shoes are scuffed, which is very common when you wear your shoes a lot.
The sole is pretty worn, he says.
The sole, S-O-L-E, is the bottom of your shoe.
In this case, you can also refer to the bottom of your feet as your sole, the soles of my feet.
Sole is also a type of fish, which usually tastes better than your feet, at least my feet.
He complains, Hero does, that his sole is pretty, again very, worn, W-O-R-N.
Worn is damaged, old, used, in this case too thin.
You could see perhaps a hole in the bottom of the shoe.
That would be a sole that was worn.
Warren, like the word stain we discussed earlier, has a couple of different meanings in English that are explained, you guessed it, in the learning guide.
Ellen says, okay, desperate times call for desperate measures.
To be desperate means that you don't have any other options and you must do something that you might not otherwise do.
Measures here means things that you do tasks methods, things that you try to do to, in this case, fix a situation.
So this common expression desperate times call for desperate measures means that when you have a very difficult situation, sometimes you have to do some things that you would not normally do.
The verb here to call for means to require.
So Ellen says, come on to Hero, meaning follow me.
Hero says, where are we going?
Ellen says, we're going to a magical place with brand spanking new clothes and where everything is flawless. couple of terms here a magical place would be a place with special powers where impossible things can happen brand in the sense of brand new means completely new entirely new Brand spanking new is just a way of emphasizing it even more.
It's very new.
It's completely new.
You could say this is brand new.
That would be the common way of describing something that you just bought that no one else has used.
Brand spanking new is a little informal.
It's just giving more emphasis to this idea that it's new.
Ellen says this place they're going is a place where everything is flawless.
A flaw, F-L-A-W, is a problem, a mistake, an error.
Flawless, with an L-E-S-S at the end, means that it's perfect.
There are no flaws, no problems.
Hero says, where's that?
Ellen says the mall, meaning the shopping mall.
So Ellen is going to take Hiro to buy some new clothing.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What are you wearing to the party?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Let's look through your closet, and I'll help you pick something out.
Okay, but I have to warn you, I have a pretty limited wardrobe.
Let's see.
These black pants are nice, but they're frayed on the bottom.
How about these jeans?
You don't think they're too faded?
There's also a rip in the back.
No, I guess those jeans won't work.
I like this shirt, though.
Did you see the stain on the front?
The zipper is also stuck, I think.
How about shoes?
Do you have any shoes that are presentable?
Well, I always wear these, but they're scuffed on the top and the sole is pretty worn.
Okay.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Come on.
Where are we going?
We're going to a magical place with brand spanking new clothes and where everything is flawless.
Where's that?
The mall.
The magical script for this episode was, I think you'll agree, flawless.
It was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I am Jeff McQuillan.
I 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.
