Hello everybody, my name is Coach Shane and welcome to Easy English Expressions.
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Hello everybody, welcome back to DailyEasyEnglishExpressions, the BudGest.
Today we got a great expression, a tab, TAB, a tab.
Now this is something we studied in DTM a few weeks ago.
Actually maybe a month or two ago.
This is 2020 by the way. A tab and this is a really excellent word to use, especially when you go to a restaurant or a bar.
Alright? Not really at a fast food place.
Now it has to be a restaurant or a bar and a bar is perfect.
And the idea is if you go to a bar, right?
You order a beer. Maybe you order two or three beers for you and your friends.
And then later on maybe you want something to eat so you get some french fries for everybody.
And then another beer, right?
So three more beers and french fries.
And later on maybe you're hungry and you want to get some chicken wings.
And maybe you're feeling good so everybody wants to have a little bit of whiskey and another beer.
So chicken wings, three more beers and three little shots or little glasses of whiskey.
So a tab means that when you order something, you don't pay right away.
They write it down on a tablet and they keep track of it.
Okay, so so far Shane has ordered three beers.
And then later on, okay, now Shane has three beers and three more.
That's six beers and french fries.
You're on, okay, Shane has nine beers, french fries, chicken wings and three shots of whiskey.
Then at the end of the night you can pay just once.
Instead of paying each time you can pay just once.
So when you order your food, you can say, yeah, I'd like three beers.
And I put that on a tab, can I start a tab?
Now if the waiter knows you, he's going to say sure.
But if the waiter doesn't know you or if the restaurant is really or the bar is really busy, they might say, sorry, sir, we don't accept tabs.
It's possible you might have to pay every time.
But if they know you or if it's not too busy, usually you can start a tab.
And once again, this is very common at a bar or a restaurant.
Check out the dialogue.
That'll be $15. Can I start a tab?
Sure, but you have to leave me your ID.
Sure thing. Yeah, so sometimes, especially if you go to like a bar, like a college bar where lots of young people go college students and stuff like that, they'll say, can I start a tab?
Can I start a tab? And then you say, okay.
And then suddenly they leave without paying the tab.
It happens a lot. So what they might ask you is, yes, you can start a tab, but you have to leave or give me your ID, your driver's license or your university ID or whatever it is, your passport.
Don't do that. But that's the idea.
That way they can be sure that you will pay the tab in order to get your ID back.
Does that make sense? Yeah, that happens, especially when they don't know you, especially at a college bar or especially on a busy night.
They might ask for your ID and you have to give it to them in order to start a tab.
Okay? Have you ever started a tab?
What was the biggest tab you ever had?
In my case, I think the biggest tab I ever had was probably about $150.
Yeah, it was a big one. A long time ago, but yeah, $150 at a bar, not even a restaurant at a bar.
I don't think we ate food, just alcohol.
It's crazy. But that's today's expression.
You can learn words like this, phrases like this, all the time.
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Thanks a lot, guys. Check out the dialogue two more times and together, let's master English.
That'll be $15. Can I start a tab?
Sure, but you have to leave me your ID.
Sure thing. That'll be $15.
Can I start a tab? Sure, but you have to leave me your ID.
Sure thing.
