Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 467, Buying Men's Shirts.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 467.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in the beautiful city of Los Angeles, California.
Go to our website at eslpodcom and download a learning guide for this episode to help you improve your English even faster.
We also have some additional courses in daily and business English, including our new Introduction to the United States course, which we think you'll be interested in.
This episode is called Buying Men's Shirts.
It's a dialogue between Francesca and Eddie, using a lot of vocabulary that you would need to know to buy a shirt for a man.
Let's get shopping.
Hurry up.
Come out of that fitting room so I can see how the dress shirt fits.
The first one didn't fit at all.
The sleeves were too short and it was too form-fitting.
I like my shirts to be on the roomy side.
I'm trying on the second one.
Okay, I think this one fits you pretty well.
The collar is the right size, not too loose or tight.
The cuffs on this one fall at just the right place, don't you think?
Yeah, it's fine.
Try on the t-shirts.
Okay, but I'm not trying on the fancy ones with a V-neck.
I like my T-shirts the old-fashioned way, with a crew neck.
All right, but try on the short sleeve and the long sleeve ones, too.
Hurry up!
Hold on.
I'm changing as fast as I can.
Oh, jeez.
I've heard of oversized t-shirts, but this is ridiculous.
Let me see.
You're right.
You've got enough room in there for two people.
Our dialogue begins with Francesca saying to Eddie, hurry up, meaning go faster.
Come out of that fitting room so I can see how the dress shirt fits.
A fitting room is a small room with a door where you can try on clothing.
You can take off your clothing that you are wearing in a store and put on the new clothing, the clothing you are deciding whether you are going to buy or not.
Usually the fitting room has a mirror so you can look at yourself.
Most stores that sell clothing have fitting rooms.
Sometimes they're called dressing rooms, but fitting room is the more common expression.
Francesca says that she wants Eddie to come out so she can see the dress shirt and how it fits.
A dress shirt is a nice men's shirt, something that you would wear for work in an office, something a little more formal, usually with buttons down the front.
The verb to fit, when we're talking about clothing, means to be the right size for your body.
So if someone says these pants don't fit, they're too small, what they are saying is the pants are not right for me.
I can't wear them.
They're not the right size because I'm so fat, you see.
Fit has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Eddie says the first one didn't fit at all.
It didn't fit him.
It wasn't the right size for him.
He says the sleeves were too short and it was too form-fitting.
The sleeve is the part of the shirt that covers your arms from your shoulder to usually your wrist, right above your hand.
Sometimes if it's a short-sleeve shirt, the sleeve only goes down to right above your elbow.
He says the shirt is too form-fitting.
Something that is too form-fitting means it's too tight.
It fits against your body too closely, usually showing the shape of your body better.
But if you don't have a body that is in good shape, well, you really don't want anyone to see it.
So form-fitting is a bad thing if you don't have a good body and a good thing if you do.
Eddie says, I like my shirts to be on the roomy side.
Roomy means lots of extra space, big.
The expression to be on the something side, in this case on the roomy side, means to be a little bit this particular adjective
So a little bit roomy, a little bit on the roomy side.
You could say that car is a little bit on the expensive side, meaning it's too expensive.
Eddie says to Francesca, I'm trying on the second one.
To try on means to put, in this case, a piece of clothing on you to see if you like it or not.
Eddie is still inside the fitting room.
He's talking to Francesca over the door.
Francesca says, come on, let me see.
She wants to have him open the door and come out so she can see him.
Then she says, okay, I think this one fits you pretty well.
The collar is the right size, not too loose or tight.
The collar is the part of the shirt that is up against your neck, often closed with a button.
To be loose means that you are able to move it back and forth.
There's a lot of room.
To be tight means not to be able to move something back and forth, to be too small.
She's saying that the collar is not too loose and not too tight.
The cuffs, she says, on this shirt fall at just the right place.
The cuff, C-U-F-F, is at the very end of your sleeve on a formal or dress shirt.
Usually there's a button to close the sleeve or, on a very formal shirt, you can wear what are called cuff links, which are little pieces of metal that you put on, and it serves the same function as a button.
Francesca says the cuff falls at just the right place.
To fall here means to hang, to rest without any support below.
What she's really saying here is that the cuff goes down to the right length.
It's the right length for his arm.
Fall has several different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some more explanations.
Eddie says, yeah, it's fine.
Then Francesca says, try on the t-shirts.
Eddie says, okay, but I'm not trying on the fancy ones with a v-neck.
I like my t-shirts the old-fashioned way with a crew neck.
T-shirts are informal shirts or shirts, usually white, that you wear underneath a formal shirt.
They can be either V-neck, meaning that the collar, the part by the neck, goes down in the shape of a V in front, or they can be crew C-R-E-W neck, which means that they're perfectly round.
So we have V-neck t-shirts and crew neck t-shirts.
Don't confuse crew neck with another expression, crew cut.
A crew cut is when you have your hair cut very short, like is often common for men when they go into the army.
The government cuts their hair in a crew cut, very short hair.
This is a crew neck, meaning a round collar on a shirt or a t-shirt.
Francesca says, all right, but try on the short sleeve and long sleeve ones too.
As we said earlier, a short sleeve shirt is a shirt where the sleeve only goes down beyond the shoulder, between the shoulder and the elbow.
A long sleeve shirt is a shirt where the sleeve goes all the way down to the wrist, down to the hand.
Eddie says, hold on, I'm changing as fast as I can.
Francesca wants him to go faster.
Then he says, oh jeez, oh goodness, oh dear.
I've heard of oversized t-shirts, but this is ridiculous.
Something that is oversized is something that is bigger than necessary, something that is too big.
Eddie is using another common expression in daily conversation.
I've heard of something, but this is ridiculous.
I've heard of it snowing outside, but this is ridiculous.
There is five feet of snow on the ground.
That form of an expression is used to express how you think this is excessive, this is unusual, this situation.
Francesca says, let me see.
You're right.
You've got enough room in there for two people.
Francesca agrees with Eddie that the shirt is too big.
It's oversized.
She says he has enough room, enough space in there for two people.
That's how big the shirt is.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Hurry up.
Come out of that fitting room so I can see how the dress shirt fits.
The first one didn't fit at all.
The sleeves were too short and it was too form-fitting.
I like my shirts to be on the roomy side.
I'm trying on the second one.
Come on, let me see.
Okay, I think this one fits you pretty well.
The collar is the right size, not too loose or tight.
The cuffs on this one fall just at the right place, don't you think?
Yeah, it's fine.
Try on the t-shirts.
Okay, but I'm not trying on the fancy ones with a v-neck.
I like my t-shirts the old-fashioned way, with a crew neck.
All right, but try on the short sleeve and the long sleeve ones, too.
Hurry up.
Hold on.
I'm changing as fast as I can.
Oh, jeez.
I've heard of oversized t-shirts, but this is ridiculous.
Let me see.
You're right.
You've got enough room in there for two people.
We like our scripts on the interesting side.
That's why we have our script writer, Dr. Lucy Say, writing for us.
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.
