📕 Part 1: Evenings

This episode's vocabulary

I don't mind them (phrase) – to say that you do not have a strong opinion about something. → Do you like evenings? I don't mind them particularly.

All up in the air (idiom) – uncertain or undecided. → My plans for the weekend are all up in the air.

Groggy (adjective) – weak and unable to think or move well because you are tired or sick. → Later in the day, I'm normally quite groggy and can't focus.

Irritable (adjective) – becoming annoyed very easily. → It makes me a bit irritable if I have to work late in the evening.

A pain (idiom) – something or someone that is very annoying. → Even answering emails in the evening is a pain.

A common occurrence (collocation) – something that happens often. → Thankfully, working late is not a common occurrence for me.

Put someone to bed (phrasal verb) – to make a child go to their bed and make sure they are comfortable. → When I was very little, my parents would have put me to bed.

Late into the evening (phrase) – continuing until a late time in the evening. → In my teenage years, I was playing video games late into the evening.

A night owl (idiom) – a person who prefers to be awake and active at night. → I'm not an early bird at all; I'm a night owl.

Head off to bed (phrasal verb) – to go to bed. → After I make dinner and read a little, I head off to bed.

An ungodly hour (idiom) – a time of day that is unreasonably early or late. → Rory wakes up at an ungodly hour, around 5:30 AM.

Time-consuming (adjective) – taking a lot of time to do. → Writing a good IELTS essay is a time-consuming task.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Do you like evenings?

Rory: I don't mind them particularly, but I like all parts of my day, especially when I have something to do with them.

Maria: What do you usually do in the evening?

Rory: I think that depends on how you define the evening time really, but usually I'd have a yoga class or climbing, or I'll see my friends and then I'd go home and read and make dinner, and I'll read while I'm eating that, and then I head off to bed. That's during the week at least, but the weekends it's all up in the air.

Maria: What do you dislike doing in the evening?

Rory: I don't like working to be honest. I like my job, but I like doing it well, and later in the day, I'm normally quite groggy, and I can't focus like I can during the day. So it makes me a bit irritable if I have to do it then. Even answering emails is a pain. That's not a common occurrence though, thankfully.

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

Rory: I can't really remember to be honest. I suppose it would have depended on at what point in my childhood we're talking about here. When I was very little, my parents would have put me to bed, but later on in my teenage years, I think I must have been out a lot or playing video games late into the evening.

Discussion

Maria: Right, dear listener. So, evening time, evenings. I like evenings, I dislike evenings. I don't mind them. So I'm okay with evenings. I like all parts of my day. I like mornings, afternoons, evenings and nights. Or I prefer evenings. I enjoy the evening time.

Rory: I'm a night owl.

Maria: There we go. I am a night owl. Yeah, but a night owl enjoys the night, right?

Rory: Well, is the evening not part of the night? I mean,

Maria: Yeah. And in English, very often, we say, Oh, let's meet tonight. It means in the evening, not at night. So, tonight could mean like before midnight, during midnight, after midnight, this English is a strange language. I usually read a book in the evening. I have a yoga class. I have climbing. Typical Rory activities. Yoga with climbing, reading.

Rory: But if we talk about regular activities, we can say I have or I'll see for I will. Even though it's about sometimes we talk about the future here, we can also use I'll for things we think are pretty certain.

Maria: Yeah. Regular activities about evenings. I'll see my friends. I make dinner. Make dinner. Okay, not do. Make dinner. I read while I'm eating. You read while you're eating?

Rory: Why not?

Maria: What about mindfulness?

Rory: Oh, what about mindfulness? It's the evening. I'm tired.

Maria: Yeah, yeah, I also do that. I watch something as well. Yeah, and then I head off to bed. So when you go to sleep, you can say I head off to bed. I head off to bed. What are typical evening activities? If you Google evening activities, lots of websites will tell you, Oh, what to do at night, like night tours, go out. You see, again, this idea that evening is going out at night. And the article's called 20 fun things to do in the evening, but then we have night tours, go to a gig, go to a comedy show, or visit a museum in the evening, okay. There you go. So you see, some activities are about, Oh, yeah, experience a night at a museum. This means that an evening in the museum, maybe like 7pm, but it could be a night because there are museums which are open at night and there are like night museum days. You see, that's very confusing, Rory.

Rory: It is. Sorry. Hold me accountable for that.

Maria: Yeah, exactly. You created the English language, what's going on? But, if I tell you, Okay, Rory, let's meet tonight. Like, at what hour, what hour do you have in your head? Like the first thing?

Rory: 7:00.

Maria: 7:00. Yeah, okay. Yeah, and if I say, okay, let's go out tonight.

Rory: Then maybe 7:00 or 8:00 or 9:00. Before 10:00 for sure.

Maria: Okay. Yeah, there we go. But it's still evening, tonight. Yeah, so typical evening activities, go to like a puzzle night, board games, maybe dear listener, you play some board games. You go to rooftop bars, perhaps, for some lovely sunsets. Yeah, you can say, Oh, sometimes I go to a rooftop. A bar which is on the roof. Usually with a beautiful view. So you can enjoy the sunset when the sun sets. Or you go night climbing.

Rory: as Rory... Well, I go climbing in the evening, indoors. I mean, it's very well lit even in the winter.

Maria: There are some activities you might dislike doing in the evening, like you don't enjoy it. I don't like working in the evening, right? Dear listener, do you enjoy working in the evening, like after 6pm? Of course not. I prefer not to work later in the day. I'm quite groggy.

Rory: Yeah, like tired and not very enthusiastic about things.

Maria: Yeah, like groggy, weak, unable to think clearly because Rory is an early bird. Rory wakes up at an ungodly hour, 5:30. So in the evening, he's weak, unable to think clearly, he's groggy, he's a bit groggy. So he's ready to sleep, which is a healthy way of living your life. You get up with the sun, you are active, you get things done, and then you just go to sleep at about 9pm. Rory, when do you go to sleep? When do you head off to bed?

Rory: About 9:00 or 10:00, I think.

Maria: Exactly, you see, this is like ideal, because Rory's body feels good and this is a special hour from 11:00 to 12:00, you should be sleeping, ideally.

Rory: We should all be sleeping ideally.

Maria: Well, yeah, what do we do together with you, dear listener? Yeah, we party till like what, 2:00 a.m. and then we just scroll through Tik Tok and Instagram till midnight. And Rory sleeps. Goes to sleep.

Rory: Sleeping soundly.

Maria: Yeah, I wish I could do that. 9, 9pm you're just asleep and then you get up at 5:00. Right, yeah, groggy. That's your word. I'm quite groggy in the evening, so I dislike working. It makes me a bit irritable. So I'm annoyed, I'm irritated, if I have to work in the evening. Irritable. C2, dear listener, band nine.

Rory: Is it?

Maria: Oh yeah, it is.

Rory: I know I have this reaction every time, but it's always over the weirdest words they decide, yes, that's a C2 word.

Maria: I know. Irritable. But I think pronunciation of the word is a bit strange because it's irritable. It's not irritable, because usually we say, I'm irritated, I'm annoyed. It makes me a bit irritable. So it makes me annoyed, it makes me irritated, dear listener, yeah?

Rory: And it's always make and the emotion.

Maria: Yeah, if I have to work, I get annoyed, it makes me a bit irritable. Even answering emails is a pain. Or you can say, even answering emails is a pain in the neck.

Rory: That just means it's annoying.

Maria: Or a pain in something else. Yeah, Google it's another part of your body. I can't say this on the podcast because Rory is controlling what I say. He controls every word.

Rory: I'm just protecting people from bad language.

Maria: But I'm allowed to say a half naked man starring in an advert. So this is allowed, but I can't talk about naked men and women.

Rory: It might be banned soon if you keep talking about it.

Maria: No, but it's an advertisement. It's an ad. Coca-Cola, there you go. Lots of talking about Coca-Cola.

Rory: Yes, which has caffeine, that stops you from sleeping. You might feel groggy after that.

Maria: Yeah, actually many people drink coffee and they go to sleep and they're fine. Surprise, surprise.

Rory: Really?

Maria: Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they just, one guy I used to go out with, he would just drink a whole bunch of coffee, like a huge cup of black coffee and bam, he's asleep. What? Amazing.

Rory: But for most people, that's not common, or it's not a common occurrence, which means it doesn't happen very often.

Maria: If you don't remember, you can say, I can't really remember to be honest. To be honest is a nice one, to tell you the truth. To be honest with you, I can't really remember. So that's fine, not to remember. My parents put me to bed, so my parents put me to sleep. And then I played a lot of video games late into the evening. So if you stayed awake playing computer games, you can say, I played video games late into the evening. Yeah, Oh, and again, we are talking about night, you see? So not like evening time, but it's fine because evening, night. I stayed up late playing computer games. Nice grammar with a participle. I stayed up late. I stayed awake playing video games. Maybe I did it. No, it was actually not maybe, but probably, most likely. I'm pretty sure I did it. And now we are ready for a joke.

Rory: Oh, god.

Maria: Are we? I know, I know, yes, yes. We are because dear listener, I know you are waiting for a joke, you want me to tell you a joke, we are teaching you how to understand English humor. It's their humor, their jokes. So the joke is, last evening, when I came out of a hot shower after a long day of work, I saw my dog eat my watch. It was time consuming. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Rory: Oh, God.

Maria: So last evening, I came out of a hot shower and I saw my dog eating my watch. So the dog was eating my watch. And it was time consuming. Consume means eat. Yeah, my dog was consuming my watch. My dog was eating my watch, but we have an adjective, time consuming, it means something takes a lot of time. Writing an IELTS essay is time consuming. It takes a lot of time. So here the joke is, Rory, tell me, tell me.

Rory: The joke is that consuming is eating and the dog is eating the watch. The watch is used for telling the time, so it's consuming the time. Oh, God. I think it's time we wrapped up this episode.

Maria: Thank you very much for listening. We love you. We hug you. Stay with us and we'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye.