📕 Part 1: Accommodation

Okay, let's talk about accommodation. Do you live in a house or a flat?

I've been living in a three-bedroom house for the last year now, about eight months to be exact actually.

What do you like the most about it?

Well, I love the local area, it's next to the beach. But if you walk for one or two hours, you can be up in the hills as well. And there's great diversity there in terms of ways to stretch your legs. It's also got two pretty big gardens, which comes in handy for parties.

What's your favorite room?

I like my office. It's got all my bits and pieces for work. And it's well relatively isolated from the rest of the building. So there are fewer distractions.

Can you describe the view from your windows?

Well, from the office? It's not exactly a panorama, I can just see our neighbor's walls and the part of the decking outside. That's just due to the angle I usually see things from. We have a rather spectacular view from the living room window of the beach in the riverbanks, which is much better.

Do you plan to leave there in the future?

Well, I'd certainly like to, but it's all contingent on whether I get placed in a school nearby. If I don't, then I'll be living further away for the foreseeable future. But that will always be there and I can come back to it. So I'm hardly missing out.

Can you tell me about the house you lived in, when you were a child?

I just did. That it's the house that I lived in, when I was a child. Obviously, it feels much smaller now, and some parts have been renovated. But overall, it's the same building it always was.

Oh, what a coincidence! Look at you!

It is a coincidence! -

Thank you for your, for your detailed answers! Especially for the first couple of questions.

Well, what are you expecting? Like we're gonna focus on the grammar as well.

Oh, boy.

And the grammar is pretty nice. I've been living. I have been living. A Present Perfect Continuous.

Yes. Continue. Continuous. Yes, dear listener, make sure that you do make use of the present perfect continuous. So I've been living in this house for a long time. Or also, you can say, I've been living in a three-bedroom house. So Rory has a three-bedroom house, which means that your house has three bedrooms plus kitchen, bathroom, a living room? Yeah?

Well, a three-bedroom house just means it has three bedrooms, and then everything else. Yeah.

But three bedrooms it's just like bedrooms. You don't include a kitchen and a living room?

No, it's you usually talk about the number of bedrooms in a house.

Okay.

When you describe the size or the kind.

Interesting, because we usually count all the rooms. So if I have like, well, my bedroom could also be my living room. And that's why we count all the rooms in a flat or a house, for example. Okay. And then what you like most about it. So you can say I love or I enjoy the local area. The neighborhood is a nice word. So the area nearby and the rotary leaves next to the beach, which is nice. And you say that there is great diversity there. In terms of ways to stretch your legs. To stretch your legs, you mean going for walks?

Well, yes. It's a good way of saying instead of walking, you just say, I like to stretch my legs from time to time.

And there is great diversity means that there are different places where you can go, yeah? And it's a nice one, like there's great diversity in terms of something. And then Rory has big gardens, which come in handy for parties. So if something comes in handy.

It's useful.

Yeah.

So it's another expression, stretch your legs, come in handy. Look, even though the answers are short, they are replete with complex vocabulary.

They are what? Replete?

Replete.

What does it mean replete? Come on.

I don't know. It just sounded nice to say. Think about it. What does replete sound like? Especially the end?

Replete? It's complete.

Yeah, so complete means the whole thing and replete means filled with, or full of.

Why didn't you say it's full of good vocabulary? Why do you need to show off and...

I wanted to sound clever and if you want to sound clever, then you use words like replete instead of full of.

Oh boy.

And the dependent preposition with replete is replete with.

Oh yeah, for example, like this car has an engine replete with the latest technology. Oh boy. Kind of full of. Can I have a heart replete with affection?

No.

With love.

I don't know why you can't, but you can't. It doesn't fit. Maybe it's only for talking about things rather than concepts like affection.

Well, actually, I'm looking at Cambridge online dictionary. And it does have this example. A heart replete with affection.

Well, it's a silly example because I've never heard anybody describe it in such a fashion.

Oh boy, they do say it's formal. So okay, anyway, back to the house. Rory's house. So favorite room. And Rory says it's my office. Interesting. So it's not a study. It's your office.

I suppose I could call it a study, where I study things.

Yeah. A study, if you have a house and you have a study, it's a room where you study, right? So it's called a study. And you can say that it's got all my bits and pieces for work. It's quite isolated from the rest of the building. So it's kind of like a bit far from the other rooms, right?

Relatively. Yes.

And then Rory talked about the view from his windows. And you said that it's not exactly a panorama?

Yes. So a panorama is just a really wide view.

So you can see your neighbor's walls, right? So your neighbor's walls of the house, right?

Of their garden. Their garden's got walls, because that marks the boundary of their property?

I think you should take pictures and just post pictures on your Instagram for us to kind of to...

Of my neighbor's house? That might be slightly intrusive.

No, no, of the view of your room of your other room. And also, you talked about a spectacular view from the living room. So we need to see that. So really, you can see the beach and river banks from your living room?

Yeah.

Oh, that's cool. Could you post the pictures on your Instagram? Please, like we need to see it.

I will definitely think about it. But like you have to bear in mind other people live nearby, they might be a bit put out by people taking pictures.

We need a room tour. Room tour. Rory's house, house tour. Like maybe a video even like, you know, you go in and then you say oh, this is my living room, and you show us your kitchen and then you move to your office. Yeah, Rory, you should definitely do that. Yeah. For us to have this, you know, the full picture.

Well, if you would like to have the full picture, then you can message us on Instagram and Telegram and ask.

I'm gonna message you and ask.

I mean, for people who are listening to our podcast. Seriously, it can't just be because of your interest. It's got to be one that people have as well.

Oh, boy. Yeah. So a room tour would be nice. Yeah. And then, so we have rather spectacular view from the living room. And then what can you say like my windows overlook the garden, or my windows... I can see a garden from my windows. What do I say?

Yeah. Well, they probably do. What floor are you on?

No, I'm asking you about the language. So what do I say if I see a garden from my windows, so my windows overlook the garden, or I see a garden from my windows?

Yeah, both of them are fine. I'm just thinking about where you are. Do you overlook anything? Because I couldn't use that in my answers. I don't overlook anything apart from... What? The path?

I see the forest. Yeah, my windows overlook the forest.

Nice.

I can see a little bit of playgrounds. And then it's just the trees and kind of like something which looks like a field. I see Birch Tree, this Russian tree right in front of my window. So yeah.

That sounds ideal.

Yeah, and I live on the fifth floor. yeah, you can also mention that if you live in a flat, you can say I live on the fifth floor. Okay? In a block of flats. So a block of flats is a block with flats, so I live on the fifth floor. And then tell me about a house you lived in when you were a child, and oh, coincidence. It's the same house. Yep. And Rory, you lived in this house when you were a child, but for how long did you live there, when you were a child?

23 years probably, apart from University of course.

Okay, so 21 you still were a child. Okay, fine. You can say that some parts have been renovated. So this is our word, if you changed something or if something has been changed in your house, so this is the word to use. Some parts of my house or flats have been renovated. So what other cool phrase can I use, if I had something renovated. I had my flat renovated. Something like that.

Yeah, I was just thinking about what else you would do. You would put something in or have something taken out.

You can say like, my flat has been refurbished. Or I, I got, I had my flat, renovated, I had my kitchen renovated or I will have it renovated in the future in the foreseeable future. Yeah? So in the near future, in the foreseeable future. You did use a phrasal verb speaking about the future. So I can come back. So I'm hardly missing out.

Are we talking about missing out here?

Yes.

Yes. So if you're missing out, then you're not getting the chance to participate in something. But if you want to know more about phrasal verbs. successwithielts.com/podcourses. That's where you want to go because that's where we keep our course on phrasal verbs.

Yep, make sure you use future continuous when you speak about your life in the future. I'll be leaving further away or I might be living in a different flat in the foreseeable future. Or I'll be leaving in a house. If now you live in a flat. If you won't be living in a house, you can just say just for the sake of it just for using this grammar structure. So I might think I'll be living in a new flat or in a house. Or I'm gonna go to Scotland and I will buy a house next to Rory's house. Oh, that would be cool.

Good luck.

Yeah, oh, I'm planning to go to Scotland. I'd like to buy a castle with, haunted castle, and then you tell the examiner the joke. And you go, oh, by the way, you know, what kind of key opens a haunted house? And then you go a spooky. Can you actually do that? Can you tell a joke in speaking part 1?

No! No, you cannot.

You can have a go and just you know. Or something like knock-knock joke. Yeah. Anyway, dear listener, make sure that you listen to other episodes about accommodation. Because again, this is an ongoing topic. It's always there in speaking part one. Where the examiner chooses to ask you about a work or studies or recommendation. Okay? Right. Rory, what would you like to add?

Hopefully we could accommodate more vocabulary for you. Oh, it's a bad pun.

Lovely. Thank you very much, Rory! And hugs and kisses. Bye!

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