Hello and welcome to the English Like A Native podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to week 23, day 1 of Your English 5 a Day, the second season.
With this series, I am on a mission to increase your active vocabulary and help you to feel more confident and comfortable comfortable when communicating in English.
Now, everything that we're covering today is recorded for you in a huge vocabulary vault, including all the vocabulary from this episode and every episode of the 5 a Day series.
This database of vocabulary is available to you for free.
All you have to do is click on the link in the show notes.
Without further ado, let's jump Jump into today's snapshot.
The bailiffs arrived early to carry out the eviction, as the court had ordered.
It was painfully clear the squatter had been living there for months without permission.
Along the way, neighbours had tried to help, but nothing could stop the legal process.
Alright, let's begin the deep dive with the noun bailiffs.
bailiffs. We spell this B -A -I -L -I -F -F -S, bailiffs.
Bailiffs are officials who can remove people from a property or take belongings when someone doesn't pay money they owe.
So for example, if you are a landlord and I haven't paid my rent for months you can send bailiffs around my house to have me and my property removed.
The bailiffs can take the property to sell it in order to cover the debt.
It's quite a scary thing I imagine.
I've never personally had to deal with bailiffs knocking on my door but I can imagine it's quite an ordeal.
So here's an example sentence.
The bailiffs removed the furniture after several warnings.
All right, next on the list we have the noun squatter.
Squatter. We spell this s -q -u -a -t -t -e -r.
Squatter. A squatter is a person who lives in a building or on land without permission or without paying rent, a squatter.
So if you leave a building unoccupied, then there's a risk that someone may go into the property and start living there.
That would be a squatter.
When I first moved to London, I considered considered being part of a scheme that puts young people into properties for very little rent.
So you pay a very low rate to stay in a property.
And the point is that you're occupying the building so that squatters don't move in.
So these buildings that you would pay low rent for would be like old schools or old council buildings that currently have no use but the council or the landlords don't want squatters to move in and they know that if they leave a building empty there's a risk that squatters will move in.
I didn't do it in the end but it was an interesting lasting possibility.
Next we have the noun eviction.
Eviction. We spell this E -V -I -C -T -I -O -N.
Eviction. Eviction is the legal process of forcing someone to leave the property they are living in.
So if you haven't paid your mortgage, you haven't paid your rent and many months have gone by and you are really, really behind with your payments, then it's likely that you will have to go through eviction.
You will be removed from the property and that process is eviction.
Here's an example sentence.
The family faced eviction after missing several rent payments.
Next we have the idiom painfully clear, painfully clear.
Two words, painfully, P -A -I -N -F -U -L -L -Y.
Clear, C -L -E -A -R. If something is painfully clear, then it's very obvious or it's easy to see in a way that may be upsetting or unpleasant.
So, for example, if your partner is suspected of cheating, then you might point out to them that when they are in the room with this other person, it's painfully clear that your partner really fancies them.
Maybe your partner is very flirtatious.
Maybe they're quite touchy -feely.
Maybe they're constantly touching this other person, putting their hand on their back, putting their hand on their leg, stroking their hair.
Maybe they giggle every time that this person speaks.
Maybe they can't take their eyes off this other person and you say to them, Hey, you can't hide it from me.
It's painfully clear that you like this other person, that you fancy this other person.
So it's easy to see.
It's very obvious in a way that is upsetting.
Here's another example.
Her disappointment was was painfully clear when she saw her test results.
Next, we have the idiom along the way, along the way.
Three words, along, A -L -O -N -G, the way, W -A -Y.
Along the way, we use this idiom to talk about something during a journey or process.
So, at some point while something something is happening.
So, for example, while I am learning how to play the piano, something else happens along the way.
So, for example, I might make friends during my piano lessons.
So, I'd say, while learning the piano back in 1995, I made a few good friends along the way.
So I made some good friends during that process or during that journey.
I could say on route to Scotland from London, I saw some terrible car accidents along the way.
Or we stopped at some lovely quaint cafes along the way.
So during the journey.
During the journey or during the process.
Here's another example.
We visited several interesting towns along the way.
There we go. That's our five.
So let's do a quick recap.
We started with the noun bailiffs, those officials who can remove people from a property or take belongings when someone doesn't pay money they owe.
Bailiffs. We had the noun squatter, a person who lives in a building or on land without permission and without paying.
A squatter. We had the noun eviction.
The legal process of forcing someone to leave the property they're living in.
Eviction. We had the idiom painfully clear.
When something is very obvious, it's easy to see and it's also unpleasant or upsetting.
It's painfully clear.
We had the idiom along the way.
way. Meaning something that happens during a journey or during a process.
Along the way. Alright, let's do this now for pronunciation purposes.
Please repeat after me.
bay lifts, bay lifts squatter, squatter eviction, eviction painfully clear, painfully clear here.
Along the way. Along the way.
Fantastic. OK. What do I call a person who is living in a building without permission, and they're not paying rent?
A squatter, that's correct.
And I will have to go through a legal process to force this squatter out of my building.
What is this legal process called?
Eviction. That's right.
And once I get permission to go ahead with the eviction, I will send around some official people to remove this person, this squatter from the building.
building, what is the name of the official who will remove the squatter?
A bailiff. Yes, we'll send round the bailiffs.
It'll probably take a couple of them, the bailiffs.
We'll go round to carry out the eviction and remove the squatter.
If something is very obvious, very easy to see, it's quite upsetting, what idiom could I use?
Painfully clear. Yes, it's painfully clear.
And what idiom could I use to talk about something happening during a journey or process?
Along the way. Very good.
All All right, let's revisit our snapshot.
The bailiffs arrived early to carry out the eviction as the court had ordered.
It was painfully clear the squatter had been living there for months without permission.
Along the way, neighbours had tried to help but nothing could stop the legal process.
All right, I want you to listen out for our target vocabulary once more as we head into storytime.
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Maggie clutched her eight -year -old daughter's hand as the bailiffs moved through their home like cold machinery.
Their faces, impassive, practiced, betrayed nothing, as they catalogued their family's belongings.
Three years in this terraced house, and now strangers were deciding which memories they could keep.
You have thirty minutes, the lead bailiff announced, checking his watch with mechanical precision.
Any possessions not removed by then will be seized or disposed of according to procedure.
Daniel, her husband, stood frozen in the doorway, his shoulders slumped beneath his worn jacket.
The redundancy six months ago, then the illness, and finally the mounting arrears had made their eviction painfully clear weeks before the court order arrived.
Still, nothing had prepared them for the clinical efficiency with which their lives were being dismantled.
Where will we go? Lizzie whispered, her small fingers tightening around Maggie's.
Maggie swallowed the lump in her throat.
We'll figure it out, love.
We always do. The bailiffs continued their methodical inventory while the family gathered what they could carry.
Clothes, documents, photographs.
Lizzie's stuffed rabbit with the missing ear.
everything else would be gone.
The dining table where they'd celebrated birthdays, the sofa where they'd huddled together watching films on cold winter evenings, the marks on the kitchen doorframe showing Lizzy's growth year by year.
When the front door closed behind them for the final time, they stood on the pavement amongst their hastily packed bags like castaways on an unfamiliar shore.
We could try my sisters again, Maggie offered.
Though they both knew Nat's one -bedroom flat couldn't accommodate them for more than a night or two, Daniel shook his head.
She's done enough. We can't keep imposing.
They spent that first night in a hostel, the three of them sharing a narrow bed with springs that dug into their backs.
By the week's end, when their meagre savings dwindled to almost nothing.
Daniel made the suggestion that changed everything.
I saw a place, he said quietly as Lizzie slept between them.
The old porter factory on Beckham Road.
It's been empty for years.
You mean become squatters, Maggie whispered, the word feeling foreign on her tongue, just until we get back on our feet.
They moved under cover of darkness, finding a service entrance with a broken lock.
Inside the abandoned factory was cavernous and cold, but the administrative section had intact windows and solid walls.
Along the way, they collected discarded furniture from skips and charity shop cast -offs.
Daniel rigged a camping stove for cooking and found ways to tap into the building's dormant utilities.
They weren't alone.
Three other families occupied different sections of the factory, an unspoken agreement marking territories while sharing resources.
Former accountants, healthcare workers, skilled tradespeople, people, all of them now squatters, all with similar stories of misfortune.
We're not criminals, Daniel insisted whenever Maggie expressed concern about their situation.
We're just surviving.
But as weeks passed into months, Maggie couldn't shake the feeling that they were building their new life on shifting sands.
And that brings us to the end of today's episode.
I do hope you found it useful.
Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.
