📕 Part 1: Evening time

Rory, do you like the morning or evening?

Well, I suppose that'll depend entirely on how I'm feeling or what I'm doing. But generally speaking, I think I prefer the feeling of being more productive in the morning, and then having the whole day to do everything. So I definitely say that I'm a morning person.

What do you usually do in the evening?

Oh, I think I'm very boring. So I work until about 8:30. In the evening that is. Before getting ready for bed, and then I'll read until about half nine, so that I can fall asleep early and wake up early. That's on the weekday evenings at least.

What did you do in the evening when you were a child?

I don't think I used to stay up ridiculously late when I was much younger. Even when I was a child, I'd be up until 10 or 11 in the evening. I think what exactly I was doing changed over the years from watching cartoons to reading, to staying out late with friends. It's all coming back to bite me now, though, I think I'd definitely prefer my early bedtimes.

Are there any differences between what you do in the evening now and what you did in the past?

Other than the ones I just described? I suppose it's a little more fixed now. Since I'd become something of a creature of habit. This sort of wild teenage and student days of staying up late getting into mischief and falling asleep in class are long over now.

And do you think your evening activities will change in the future?

I imagine they will. But how they will change I have absolutely no idea. I am hoping that they'll remain calm because I like calm evening time now.

Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

Thank you! -

So evening, I'm definitely an evening person. And that's a nice thing to say, like I'm a morning person, I'm an evening person. What if I'm a night person, can I say I'm a night person?

Oh, well. Oh, what was it? There's that cliche I'm a night owl.

Yeah. Do you ever use it? Do you ever say like, oh, I'm a night owl, oh, my friend is a night owl.

I've probably used it but not in like a very serious conversation. Maybe just I prefer to stay up late or I prefer staying up late.

Yeah. So to stay up late is a phrasal verb. And if you don't go to bed early, for example, you stay up so up, right? Up. And you don't go to sleep. So you can say I stay up late. Or just I stay up. What could be a nice synonym, Rory? Like band nine phrase, idiomatic phrase as a synonym to stay up?

That would be something like to stay up all hours or something like that?

No, no. It's like to pull.

Oh, are we talking about pull an all nighter?

Yes. Yes.

We've talked about that before, haven't we?

We did. Yes. Because we do have an episode about, I think was it like about evening morning or something...

It was something like that.

It was very similar, I don't remember. Please, dear listener, yeah, take a look. Because again, IELTS people recycle topics. So the topics keep repeating themselves. And this one is only about evening time. But, oh, there was this topic of stay staying up late. Yeah, yeah. And so to pull an all nighter. Rory, could you give us an example with this phrase? Pull an all nighter.

No, because I haven't pulled an all nighter in forever, because I just don't do it anymore. So maybe I haven't pulled an all nighter since I was a student. There we go. Negative sentence.

Yeah. So to pull an all nighter, you don't sleep all night. You stay up, you stay awake. Because you're preparing for the exams. You're listening to our podcast. You are liking all our videos, buying our premium and phrasal verb course. So you don't go to bed, you pull an all nighter. Yeah, I used to pull an all nighter. Oh, can you say I used to pull all nighters? Can you change the phrase in the plural? So if you stayed up late, regularly, can you say I pulled all nighters?

Yes. Why not?

Yeah. So you can say I'm a morning person. I'm an evening person. I am a night owl. And a nice phrasal verb to stay up late. Or just to stay up or pull an all nighter. And the question is like, do you like the morning or evening? And Rory says, well, that will depend entirely on how I'm feeling. So that depends entirely on how I'm feeling. Rory, entirely, is it an adjective or an adverb?

Well, here it's an adverb because, well, it's, it's like describing how much you depend, I suppose, on something happening, or something being the case.

Yeah. And you can say I feel more productive in the morning than in the evening. And then the examiner goes, okay, okay, but tell me about your evening times. Okay, I see you are more productive in the morning, but what about the evening? You know? Why do you like evenings? What do you usually do? And Rory just admits it. He says, I'm very boring. Dear listener, "watcher", our fan, do you think that Rory is boring? Rory, do you, do you, what's the joke?

Well, no, I'm being entirely serious when I say that. I'm like the most boring person in the universe, or at least I tried to be when it comes to going to bed and getting up early. So sorry about that, if anyone's disappointed.

Yeah. So if you are like Rory, if you're a morning person, and if you don't like this, but you like the evenings, right, Rory? Do you like evenings?

I like all kinds of the day. It just depends on what's happening to me.

Hmm, okay. So you can say like, I'm very boring. I go to bed early, and I read in bed, then I fall asleep, I wake up, right? I don't usually stay up, or never pull all nighters. Yeah? And that's on the weekday. Evening. So on weekday evenings, right? I can also say, like, in the evening, or in the evenings, yeah?

Yeah. Although it's probably a good thing to point out that even though the vocabulary in there is like, sort of run of the mill, if you're able to make a joke out of it, like I'm very boring, and I don't do much, then there's a certain level of skill involved in that as well, because that can make the examiner well have an emotional reaction. And so it shows some skill with being able to use language too. So it's not always a lost cause. If you say something like I'm very boring.

When you talk about things you did when you were a child, used to. Our favorite used too. So check the pronunciation. I used to get up early. Used to. Rory how do say it?

I used to. I used stay up.

Yeah, I used to stay up. Right? But not anymore. Right? So when Rory was a child, he used to pull an all nighter, all nighters, and now not anymore, right? And then you can say in the evening, I usually stay out late with friends. So you see, you stay up, you don't go to bed. Or you can stay out late with friends. So if you stay out, you just go out, yeah? And hang out with your friends.

Yeah, I think that's the big difference. Like if you stay out, then you're outside the house. But if you stay in or stay out, then you're well inside.

And what would be typical activities like evening activities that our listeners could talk about, for example, going out with friends.

For teenagers?

Like things you don't do Rory, but other people do.

I never said I did anything or I did or didn't do anything. So well, what would that be? Oh, well, I mean, most teenagers, it's funny because people often think that just happens in Russia, but like most teenagers do just go out walking with their friends, for example. Or they'll do stuff with their friends, play video games, chat online, this kind of thing.

But what about adults in Scotland? Or kind of like your friends? What do they usually do in the evening? Do they play computer games, do they, I don't know.

That's a really good question. I have absolutely no idea. I haven't asked them, to be honest. Unless we were going out on a night out.

Ask your friends.

What, do you want me to ask them right now?

Yes. Well, you should have, you should have prepared for this episode. Like call your friends, ask them. Okay. Hello. What do you, what do you usually do in the evenings? Let's talk about mirrors.

Yeah, exactly. Lots of people said this, actually. They were like, oh, yeah, I've asked, I've started asking my questions what they do and they're sitting down or what they're doing in their evenings. And I was like, just be yourself. No, everything has to be exciting.

Okay, yeah, dear listener. So you can say, I just, I just, I don't do anything much. You know, I go to bed. I watch the telly. I call my friends. I go out for a walk. So you know, things like that. I read in the evening. And Rory has become a creature of habit.

Ah, yes. Okay. Well, that's just do with liking routine, if you're a creature of habit.

So we know that Rory gets up at 5:30. He has his tuna for breakfast. And then he kind of he follows the routine, right? So Rory is a creature of habit. Rory, would you like to comment on anything else here?

Well, just based on what I can remember, probably talking ever comparing now and the past and emphasizing the extent of the difference. Seeing something is long over now is probably a good way to draw attention to that. And in the same way to describe how late you were I said ridiculously late, so ridiculously late, not normal, or just very extreme, extremely late, ridiculously late.

Yeah, if we say ridiculously early, you remember we say, at an ungodly hour. So Rory gets up at 5:30. So this is an ungodly hour.

Is 5:30 an ungodly hour? Like really?

Yes. Yes.

Why?

For kind of the majority of normal people, Rory.

I don't understand that. What time does everyone else get up at?

At 10, at 9, okay, 8.

Who wakes up at 10 o'clock in the morning. How do you afford this luxury of waking up at 10 o'clock in the morning? What time do you go to bed?

One? Midnight?

Really?

Yes.

Oh, God, I an't imagine doing that.

Well, a person, especially a woman who does a lot of intellectual work. Actually, any person who is involved in some intellectual activities on a daily basis needs eight hours, eight hours of sleep every day.

I will take your word for it.

So I sometimes do need 10.

Okay.

Yes, I researched this. Yeah, dear listener, you can also talk about sunsets, right? So for example, I enjoy evenings because I enjoy sunsets. Rory, what's your take on sunsets? Beautiful?

Well, I never see them now, because they always go to bed at half past eight. And when we're recording this, this is in the summer. So even in Scotland, the sun in summer doesn't set until about 10 o'clock at night, so I haven't actually seen the sunset for months.

Ah, poor you.

No it's fine, I don't mind.

Right, dear listener, I've got a quote for you that I found on the internet. "May the sun in your life never set, may it always rise high and above. Good evening."

Can the sun please set on this video?

The sun definitely has to set on our video. Thank you very much for listening! You can go and check out our episodes about staying up late. And stay in touch right in the comments how boring Rory is and how lovely my dress is, my evening dress. And I'm going out today because it's evening. It's evening time.

Nice!

Yeah, I know, I know. It's all kind of light, but it's getting dark now. I'm going out. So I'm gonna go off and party. Bye!

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