Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 301, Buying a Men's Suit.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 301.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. which has several premium courses you may be interested in.
This episode is all about someone who is buying a suit, a formal piece of clothing that you would wear to a business meeting or a wedding, for example.
There'll also be vocabulary here more generally about buying clothes.
Let's get started.
Good afternoon.
What can I help you find?
I'm looking for a suit for work.
I'm sure we have something for you.
Are you looking for a traditional or contemporary suit?
I'm not sure.
I'd like to try on some different ones.
That's no problem.
Let me show you a few over here.
This is a two-button pinstripe suit that's made of 100% wool and has a flat front.
What do you think?
It looks nice.
How about this one?
Oh, this is a very fine suit.
As you can see, it's double-breasted and is fully lined.
The pants are pleated.
Would you like to try it on?
Sure.
Just follow me to the dressing rooms in the back.
Here you are.
My name is Caroline.
Just let me know if you need anything.
I like this single-breasted one.
I like the side vents.
All of these suits need to be dry cleaned.
Is that right?
I travel a lot in my job and I worry about my suits getting dirty on the road.
Yes, they all need to be dry cleaned, but since both of these suits are a dark color, that shouldn't be too big of a problem.
How does that feel?
It's a good fit, and it's very comfortable.
Okay, I'll take this one.
Certainly.
I'll ring you up.
Do you need anything else?
A vest, suspenders, or a garment bag to store the suit?
No, thanks.
I'll just take the suit.
No problem.
Just follow me.
Our dialogue begins... with the sales clerk saying, Good afternoon.
What can I help you find?
The sales clerk is the person who works at the store, who sells you things.
Bo says, I'm looking for a suit for work.
A suit for a man usually has a jacket on, that you wear over a shirt and pants.
Usually they are made of the same what we would call fabric.
F-A-B-R-I-C.
Fabric is the material that you make clothing from.
Suit has several meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional definitions.
The sales clerk says, I'm sure we have something for you.
Are you looking for a traditional or contemporary suit?
Contemporary here means modern, related to the present time.
Traditional would be what people have worn in the past.
Contemporary can also mean for some people a little too modern.
Traditional would be a more conservative suit, a suit that would look like the suits that people have worn in the past.
A contemporary suit might have a different look to it.
We use that word contemporary when talking about all sorts of things, lots of things.
You could have contemporary music, music made in the last 20, 30 years, for example, or contemporary art.
Bo says he's not sure what he is looking for.
He says he'd like to try on some different suits today.
To try on is a two-word or phrasal verb which means to put on a piece of clothing a shirt, a jacket shoes pants, socks.
All of those would be pieces of clothing you could try on.
You put it on or try it on to see if you like it and you want to buy it.
The sales clerk says that's no problem.
Let me show you a few suits over here.
This is a two-button pinstripe suit.
A button is a round piece of plastic or plastic wood, maybe metal that is put into, for example, a jacket.
You have a button on one side and a buttonhole on the other and the button goes into the hole to keep the jacket together.
We have buttons on shirts.
You could have buttons on your pants.
This is a two-button pinstripe suit.
The word pinstripe P-I-N-S-T-R-I-P-E refers to very thin light-colored lines that are put on a dark piece of fabric.
The lines go vertically from top to bottom.
They're very thin.
They are used in making formal business suits.
A pinstripe suit, we call it.
This is a two-button, so it has two buttons on the jacket.
A two-button pinstripe suit that's made of 100% wool and has a flat front.
Wool, W-O-O-L, is a fabric that is made from the hair of sheep or possibly a goat.
Usually it is a sheep hair.
And wool is a very warm fabric.
If you are cold and you put on a wool jacket or sweater, you will become warmer.
This suit has a flat front.
A flat front means that there is no design or detail on the front.
It is plain in front.
It's a flat front suit.
The sales clerk asks Bo, what do you think?
Meaning, do you like it?
Do you dislike it?
Bo says it looks nice.
How about this one?
The sales clerk says, oh, this is a very fine suit.
Of course, the sales clerk thinks all of the suits are fine as long as you buy one.
She says, as you can see, it's a double-breasted suit.
To say something is double hyphen breasted, B-R-E-A-S-T-E-D, means the jacket has two front parts.
Each part has buttons so that when you close the jacket, when you put, the front of the One part goes over the other part and there are two buttons showing.
So it's a little more complicated type of jacket, a double-breasted suit jacket.
The suit jacket is fully lined.
When we say something is lined, we mean that there is another layer of fabric inside the jacket, usually to make it look a little more professional, so that the front of the jacket, the outside of the jacket, looks a little different than the inside of the jacket.
There are two pieces of fabric as part of the jacket.
Beau says that he wants to try on the double-breasted suit.
The sales clerk also tells him that the pants are pleated.
P-L-E-A-T-E-D.
When something is pleated... we mean that there are folds that are sewn into the clothing.
So it looks like they have two or three small folds in the front of the pants.
You can also have a pleated skirt if you're a woman or a man who likes to wear skirts.
The sales clerk says to Bo, just follow me to the dressing rooms in the back.
The dressing rooms are small rooms, usually with a mirror that you can go and put on clothing in a store.
You can also have dressing rooms in a gymnasium where two athletic teams are playing.
They would go into the dressing room to put on the clothes they need to play the game.
That's also called a dressing room.
Bo comes out of the dressing room and says, I like this single-breasted one.
A single-breasted jacket is a jacket that has buttons on on only one side, in the front, so that when you close the jacket, one part goes over the other and you have one line or one column of buttons that you can see.
Bo says he also likes the side vents.
A side vent.
V-E-N-T is a long, thin opening at the side and the bottom of your shirt or jacket that allows you to move more easily.
Bo asks if all of the suits need to be dry cleaned.
To dry clean, two words, dry. means to wash certain kinds of fabric without using water.
It's done at a special cleaning business.
We call them dry cleaners.
And if you have certain kinds of clothing that will not be able to be washed without changing them or washing, ruining them, harming them, you can bring it to a dry cleaner.
The clerk says, yes, these are all suits that need to be dry cleaned.
Bo says that the suit is a good fit.
When we say something is a good fit, we mean it's the correct size and shape for your body.
Bo says he'll take this one, meaning he'll buy this suit.
The sales clerk says, certainly.
I'll ring you up.
I will tell you how much money you need to give me.
Do you need anything else?
A vest, suspenders, or a garment bag?
A vest is a piece of clothing like a jacket that but it doesn't have any sleeves for the arms.
Suspenders are long, thin pieces of cloth that go on the front of your pants a man's pants usually and the back of your pants and over your shoulders.
So they are used to prevent your pants from falling down.
Suspenders are kind of old-fashioned.
You don't see a lot of men wearing suspenders.
Most just wear belts.
But you will still see suspenders for some men, especially with a very formal suit.
A garment.
G-A-R-M-E-N-T bag is a piece of fabric or plastic that you use to hold clothing, to put clothing in so it doesn't get dirty.
On an airplane, sometimes you will see men or women with business suits that have a garment bag.
It's their clothing inside, and they use that so that it doesn't get dirty or it doesn't get folded.
We would say it doesn't get wrinkled, meaning the fabric has lines in it after you take it out of the bag.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Good afternoon.
What can I help you find?
I'm looking for a suit for work.
I'm sure we have something for you.
Are you looking for a traditional or contemporary suit?
Not sure.
I'd like to try on some different ones.
That's no problem.
Let me show you a few over here.
This is a two-button pinstripe suit that's made of 100% wool and has a flat front.
What do you think?
It looks nice.
How about this one?
Oh, this is a very fine suit.
As you can see, it's double-breasted and is fully lined.
The pants are pleated.
Would you like to try it on?
Sure.
Just follow me to the dressing rooms in the back.
Here you are.
My name is Caroline.
Just let me know if you need anything.
I like this single-breasted one.
I like the side vents.
All of these suits need to be dry-cleaned.
Is that right?
I travel a lot in my job, and I worry about my suits getting dirty on the road.
Yes, they all need to be dry-cleaned.
But since both of these suits are a dark color, that shouldn't be too big of a problem.
How does that feel?
It's a good fit and it's very comfortable.
Okay, I'll take this one.
Certainly.
I'll ring you up.
Do you need anything else?
A vest, suspenders, or a garment bag to store the suit?
No, thanks.
I'll just take the suit.
No problem.
Just follow me.
The script for this podcast was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
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.
This podcast is copyright 2007.
