📕 Part 1: Keys

This episode's vocabulary

misplace (v) – to put something in the wrong place and temporarily lose it. → *I misplaced my keys the other day when I put them in the wrong pocket.*

momentary panic (n) – a very brief and sudden feeling of strong fear or anxiety. → *I had a momentary panic when I realised I had misplaced my keys.*

lock yourself out (phr. v) – to accidentally prevent yourself from entering your home or car by leaving the keys inside. → *I left my keys in the flat and locked myself out, which was super stressful.*

standard lock (n) – a basic, common type of lock that is not high-security. → *My front door just has a standard lock and key, so it’s impossible to lock myself out.*

backup keys (n) – an extra set of keys kept in case the primary set is lost. → *My best friend has some backup keys for my house just in case.*

key fob (n) – a small electronic device used to open doors or start a car without a traditional key. → *You just stick the key fob to the sensor and the main door opens.*

a set of keys (n) – a group of keys held together on a ring. → *My landlord gave me a new set of keys for the apartment.*

spare key (n) – an extra key kept for emergencies. → *It's a good idea to leave a spare key with a trusted neighbor.*

slam shut (phr. v) – to close with great force and a loud noise. → *I left the window open and the draft made the door slam shut.*

be told off (phr. v) – to be spoken to angrily by someone because you did something wrong. → *I was told off by my mother for being so careless with the keys.*

keepsake (n) – a small item kept in memory of a person or event. → *I have some small keepsakes from my trip to Thailand on my keychain.*

charm (n) – a small decorative ornament attached to a keychain or bracelet. → *She has a little metal dragon charm on her keychain for good luck.*

(something) is key (idiom) – (something) is the most important element for achieving success. → *In this industry, good communication is key.*

Questions and Answers

Maria: Have you ever lost your keys?

Rory: Not properly for a very long time. When I was in high school, maybe. I misplaced them the other day though, when I put them in the wrong pocket, and I had a momentary panic. It wasn't very serious.

Maria: Do you always bring many keys with you?

Rory: Not a lot of them, no. I think I only have one on me now, actually. It's my front door key. Everything else in the house isn't locked, so there's no point on having any other ones. Unless I'm looking after my parents' house or something. They have lots of different ones for the front door and the back door and even the garden sheds.

Maria: Do you often forget the keys or lock yourself out?

Rory: No, it's never happened to me actually. My front door just has a standard lock and key, really. So it's impossible for anything like that to go wrong. The worst thing that could happen is locking myself in, but I almost always know where my keys are, so that seems unlikely.

Maria: Is it a good idea to leave your keys with a neighbor?

Rory: I suppose so, if you trust them. I don't really know mine. So I wouldn't do that. But my best friend lives just up the road, so he has some backup keys just in case.

Maria: Where do you keep your keys?

Rory: I have a keychain that's almost always with the key itself in the door lock. And when it's not there, I just stick them in my pocket or a little bag if I'm going away, and then I won't need to worry about them for a while.

Discussion

Maria: Right, dear listener. Keys. I haven't lost my keys. Or once I've lost my keys, present perfect. Or you can say once I've misplaced them, them, meaning keys. Right? So the examiner asks you, have you ever lost your keys? You can say yeah, I've lost them once or twice, right? For example. As for me, I've lost keys several times. It was horrible. Okay? Rory has never lost his keys. Oh no, maybe when I was at school, right? So in the past. I misplaced my keys the other day. So for example, last week, I misplaced my keys. So I put them in the wrong place and then I thought I had lost them, but I just put them in some other place. So you can use this verb. I usually put them in my back pocket, or I usually put them in my backpack, right? But I misplaced them. You can also say, well, I usually get paranoid, very anxious, nervous, where are my keys? Where are my house key? So house keys, car keys, maybe you have a car, you have car keys, or car key, right? So I always get paranoid, and I'm afraid to lose them, right? Maybe you have a key card. Right? Cause some apartments can open up with a key card. So do you have keys, dear listener, do you have a key card? Do you have, I don't know, one key for everything? How many keys have you got? Hm? How many keys do you have?

Rory: I have three keys, my front door key, my second door key, and my third door key.

Maria: My God.

Rory: No, the first key is kind of not a usual key, it's a strange key, kind of you stick it to the thing and the door opens. It's not like you don't turn it.

Maria: Oh, like a key fob.

Rory: Key fob.

Maria: Key fob, it's called?

Rory: Yeah, I think it's called, I call it a key fob, anyway.

Maria: Yeah, the entrance door to the house, to a block of flats. You kind of look and I have two doors when I'm on the floor, on my floor, and the second door which is to my apartment. Yeah, say it again, what what do you call it?

Rory: Key fob. F O B.

Maria: Fob key, dear listener. I go to Google images if I need to understand what it's like. So if you Google key fob, F O B, so yeah, pretty much, yeah, I have a key fob. I always bring many keys with me, a lot of keys, or I have two keys, one key.

Rory: A set of keys, maybe, if it's all for one thing.

Maria: A set of keys.

Rory: I was given a set of keys because where I live right now used to be a place, a house of multiple occupancy. That means there were many people unrelated people living here at the same time. So they all had their rooms locked, but they shared different rooms.

Maria: You can say that I usually have only two keys on me, kind of with me or on me. It's my front door key, it's my fob key, it's my, I don't know, car key, or car keys. And everything else is locked, for example. And we say a key for something, a key for my house, a key for my I don't know, room.

Rory: It's a key to my front door.

Maria: Not a key for?

Rory: It could be. A key to my front door or a key for my front door.

Maria: Have you ever locked yourself out? So to lock yourself out is a situation when the door is closed and you are outside and the key is in your apartment. So you lock yourself out. Oops. But these days I don't think we have such doors, they just don't close automatically.

Rory: Well, I mean, we sometimes do, at least we do in my country, but I don't think it's very common for people to lock themselves out, unless it's someone else's house by accident.

Maria: So you can say, yeah, once I forgot my keys, or I left my keys in the flat and locked myself out. It was super stressful. Yeah. Or it has never happened to me. Because my front door has a standard lock. So we have keys and we have locks. So a lock is in the door. So a lock is the place where you turn your key. So you turn your key inside a lock. So I have a standard lock. So it's impossible to lock yourself out. Actually, once I did lock myself out, but it was a long time ago. Yeah, I was cooking and then just we opened the window, I left the apartment and bam, the door slammed shut. I was outside, everything else was inside, and then, it was fun. Yeah, luckily my mother was working very close to the house, so I had to just run to her. It took me about 10 minutes, and then she gave me the keys. I was told off, I was actually shouted at for a good 10 minutes. Horrible, horrible.

Rory: Did you shout back?

Maria: At my mom? Of course not, Rory. No. I was just crying.

Rory: Oh, no.

Maria: So yeah, people, locking yourself out. And can you imagine if you lock yourself out and you are there half naked, maybe in your in your towel, somehow you went from the shower outside the apartment for some reason, I don't know why, but can you imagine being without your phone, without money, anything, just you close yourself, just it, and the door is locked. Horrible. What an adventure, dear listener. That's why the next question is about your neighbor. So sometimes it's useful to leave your key, another set of keys with your neighbor. So if you lock yourself out, you just knock on your neighbor's door. Rory, what do you call it, like I have an extra key, I have another pair of keys?

Rory: Oh, a spare key.

Maria: There you go. Yeah. So it's useful to have a spare key. So that's the same key that you have, but maybe it's hidden, in films, they hide a spare key in the garden under a rose, or they hide a spare key somewhere by the door. Do you do this, dear listener? No, maybe you should. So yeah, it's a good idea to hide a spare key or to leave your spare key with a neighbor or with your parents, with somebody who lives close to you. So it's a good idea to leave your spare key with somebody who lives up the road to back you up. So this person has some backup keys just in case. And if you lock yourself out, you can't get into your apartment. So I couldn't get into my apartment. I was stressed out. It was a nightmare.

Rory: Or I was in a panic.

Maria: Yeah. Where do we keep your... Where do we keep our keys? Usually we have a keychain. So something, this thingy and then we put our keys on it. So I have a keychain and what do you call this little thingies, that beautiful thingies that we put on a keychain?

Rory: I can't remember.

Maria: No, because some women can keep their lipstick on a keychain, a mirror, everything.

Rory: Ah, okay. So you keep something on a keychain, it doesn't have a special name then.

Maria: Maybe keychain accessories. Okay. But now we can have some interesting items on a keychain, like a flashlight, for example. If it gets dark, you kind of you turn it on like bam, or a pocket knife. Dear listener, what what do you keep on your keychain? Maybe something else, or maybe something fluffy, some accessories, right? So kind of you have a keychain and then on a keychain, you have keys, you have your tamagotchi, you have your, I don't know, lipstick, you have a pocket knife, a mirror.

Rory: You have everything on there.

Maria: Yeah, you have all your life there. There you go. forevergift.com. Ten awesome things to put on a keychain that will make your keychain multifunctional. There you go. So what accessories, dear listener, accessories. So they're called keychain accessories. So I have keys plus I have some accessories. What are they? Flashlight. That's boring. Pocket knife, also boring. Come on.

Rory: Why is a pocket knife boring? It's got different things on it.

Maria: Hearts.

Rory: What?

Maria: Uh

Rory: A rabbit's foot for good luck.

Maria: Oh yeah. If you are superstitious, you have a rabbit's foot, but it's not a foot of a rabbit.

Rory: Or you do have a rabbit foot?

Rory: I don't have a rabbit's foot. I can't think of anything worse than carrying bits of animals around with you.

Maria: Yeah, because some people put some fur, some furry things and to kind of to scare away evil spirits and you can have a rabbit's foot. or some other thingies like that. Lucky real rabbit foot keychain foot. Right, dear listener. So what do you have on your keychain? Maybe nothing, maybe something. All right? What do you have on your keychain?

Rory: Oh, I have some fluff.

Maria: Some fluff. Okay, so Rory, what what what do you call this? So first of all, I have I have this.

Rory: I don't know, a bobble?

Maria: A bobble?

Rory: Yeah. Well, if you cannot see what Maria is showing me, but it's a big furry ball.

Maria: Yeah, I have a big furry ball. It's very soft, it's very nice. It's kind of Yeah, it's it's quite big. It's purple and it's like fur. Then I also have this little thing. So what do you call this one?

Rory: I just call that a keychain. Again, I'm looking at something metal.

Maria: And it's a dragon.

Rory: Maybe it's just a charm or something nice.

Maria: It's a charm. Yeah, there we go. There we go. It's a charm. So a charm, it's a nice metal dragon. I'm not sure what metal it is. And also I have this little thingy from somewhere from Thailand, I think. See, so I have charms and I have a big furry ball.

Rory: Souvenirs.

Maria: Souvenirs and keepsakes. Keepsakes. Yeah, dear listener, there we go. Keepsakes. Yes, so I have some charms, some keepsakes on my keychain. A keepsake is a small present, usually not expensive, but someone gives you or you buy it like souvenirs, accessories. Excellent. Now we are ready for a joke about keys.

Rory: Ooh, what's the joke?

Maria: Dear listener, are you ready? So, if you ever get locked out of your house, talk to your lock because communication is key. It is very funny.

Rory: But not as key as our vocabulary.

Maria: Vocabulary is key. You see, a key to the door and something is key in communication, for example, yeah?

Rory: Key to success.

Maria: Key to success. And here key is used in two different ways. So if you get locked out of your house, you should talk to your lock. Lock is like imagine that your lock is a person and talk to the lock. Oh, it's a joke. Oh, my door, please, understand me, and I'm in this difficult position. Could you just do something and just open? Because communication is key. Right. Okay. Thank you very much for listening.

Rory: And look forward to seeing you next time.

Maria: Bye.

Rory: Bye.