📙 Part 2: Describe a time when you got up early

This episode's vocabulary

Early bird (idiom) – a person who gets up very early in the morning. → I'm a bit of an early bird, so I enjoy waking up before the sun rises.

Night owl (idiom) – a person who likes to stay up late at night. → I'm not an early bird at all, I'm a night owl and enjoy staying up late.

At the crack of dawn (idiom) – very early in the morning, when the sun first appears. → He's an early riser, he's up at the crack of dawn all the time.

Comes to mind (phrasal verb) – to enter your thoughts. → One time that immediately comes to mind is when I had to get up to go to yoga.

Buffer time (noun phrase) – extra time allowed for something, in case of delays or problems. → I need to build in some buffer time for him to get ready.

Settle in (phrasal verb) – to begin to feel relaxed and comfortable in a new place or situation. → It's nice to be early so you can get a space and settle in before the class starts.

Get things done and dusted (idiom) – to complete a task successfully and completely. → I like to get things done and dusted as soon as possible and get on with my day.

No skin off my back/nose (idiom) – used to say that something will not harm or annoy you. → Getting up early wasn't really any skin off my back.

Ungodly hour (idiom) – an unreasonably early or late time of day. → I got up at an ungodly hour, 6:20 in the morning.

Full of beans (idiom) – to have a lot of energy and enthusiasm. → In the mornings I'm full of beans.

Natural extension (noun phrase) – something that develops or follows logically from something else. → Getting up early for yoga was just a natural extension of how things usually are for me.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Describe a time when you got up early. You should say when it was, what you did, why you got up early, and how you felt about it.

Rory: Well, I'm a bit of an early bird anyway, so I'm up at the crack of dawn all the time. But, one time that immediately comes to mind is actually the start of this week when I had to get up to go to yoga. Speaking about exactly when it was, I can tell you actually exactly when, because it was Monday at 6:20. I make a point of getting up at that time, although it's usually earlier than most people. If we consider what exactly I did, well, I just got up to brush my teeth, go to the bathroom and then get dressed before I left. And when I think about why I got up at that hour, well, the yoga class doesn't actually start until 7:00 in the morning. But I like to be away by half past six. So, being up ten minutes before that makes a lot of sense to me. Even though it's only a fifteen-minute walk up the road, it's nice to be early so you can get a space and settle in before the class starts. And I've been going with my flatmate recently as well. So, I need to build in some buffer time for him to get ready and so he can make tea before yoga starts as well. As far as my feelings are concerned, I don't really mind to be honest. Like I said, I'm someone who doesn't mind getting up early, so this was just sort of a natural extension of how things usually are for me. If I hadn't needed to be up for yoga, then I still think I'd have gotten up early anyway, just because I'm an early riser, so I like to get things done and dusted as soon as possible and get on with my day. So, this wasn't really any skin off my back. And I imagine I'll be having similar days like that in the future. I don't foresee any possible changes unless I go on holiday or something like that.

Discussion

Maria: Right dear listener, a time when you got up early. Early could be 6:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m., anything, I think before twelve is early. Even maybe 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m. is early for you. But normally, it's something like before nine, 9:00 a.m., yeah? Generally, that's quite early. And you can start off with, I'm a bit of an early bird. So an early riser. I enjoy getting up early. So I'm an early bird. Or if you don't like getting up early, you can say, oh, I'm not an early bird, I'm not an early riser, I'm a night owl. I enjoy getting up late.

Rory: Probably good to add in a bit there. A bit of an early bird, a bit of a night owl.

Maria: I get up at the crack of dawn.

Rory: That's when the sun starts to rise.

Maria: It's an idiom, C2, band nine. So at the crack of dawn, at the crack of dawn, very early in the morning, when the sun appears. So I usually get up at the crack of dawn. Or you can say it in the negative. I never get up at the crack of dawn. So make sure you use it anyway, yeah? So I am a bit of an early bird, so I usually get up at the crack of dawn, or I'm not an early bird and I never get up at the crack of dawn, but one time that comes to mind, that one time I remember, is a day when... And the story is in the past. So, is a day when I had to get up to go to yoga. I had, I had, like I had to get up to catch my plane, or I had to get up for school or for something, for a party. Yeah, maybe you had a party in the morning, why not? Oh, it was on Monday as well. Oh, it's crazy.

Rory: It's my normal day.

Maria: Rory is a yoga instructor, dear listener.

Rory: But this was just a class for me.

Maria: So it, it was earlier than usual, because usually it's like 6:30, but on that day it was 6:20. And then what you did, like I got up at an ungodly hour, 6:20.

Rory: That would be a good phrase to use actually, wouldn't it?

Maria: Oh yeah, it's freaking ungodly hour. That's too early.

Rory: It's not too early. It's too early for Maria.

Maria: I got up, I brushed my teeth, I went to the bathroom. You can explain what you did in the bathroom if you want.

Rory: No, you can't. You just say you went to the bathroom and that's it.

Maria: No, you just don't say, oh, I did

Rory: I did this and that.

Maria: in the toilet.

Rory: Wow.

Maria: I went to the toilet and, dear listen, dear examiner, you know what you do. And my plane or the yoga class, the party, the meeting with my friend, started at seven, so I needed to be there before seven. So I usually arrive earlier. And it's a fifteen-minute walk from my home or it's an hour drive from my home. It's a one-hour metro ride from my home. Oh, it's a five-minute walk from my house. Again, dear listener, you can lie. You had to catch the train and the train station is just a fifteen-minute walk from your house. I think it's nice to be early, so I decided to be there earlier than something started.

Rory: So you can get settled in.

Maria: As far as my feelings are concerned, I didn't mind. So I didn't mind it. I was okay. I didn't mind it. I was absolutely okay with this. Getting up at an ungodly hour, at the crack of dawn, at freaking 6:20 in the morning. So I didn't mind getting up so early. Or, dear listener, if you didn't like it, then you say, I was exhausted. I felt horrible.

Maria: Rory, what else can you say?

Rory: I was dying.

Maria: I was dying, yeah. It was so early. It was freaking early.

Rory: I wasn't, because in the mornings I'm full of beans.

Maria: Oh, okay. Okay. But maybe dear listener, I felt horrible. I was dying. I was almost dead. I was like a zombie. I was tired. I didn't understand what was going on. So, yeah, I was very sleepy. Okay? Sleepy. Yeah, but Rory was fine. He was full of beans, which means he was active and fresh, like a flower, like a cucumber. Like a fresh cucumber. And then you can use the third conditional. Again, the story is in the past. So we can imagine things. If I hadn't got up so early, I would have missed my bus, my train, my plane, my meeting, my yoga class, blah blah blah. But I did wake up and I didn't miss, right? So the third conditional. If I hadn't woken up so early, I would have missed. So if I hadn't woken up so early, I'd have missed my plane. I'd have missed a meeting with a friend. Rory, then you said something like, this was no skin off my back. That was so weird. Strange.

Rory: Yeah. Have you never heard that expression before?

Maria: No, this is strange. Like old-fashioned, no?

Rory: It just means it's not a big deal for me or a huge problem.

Maria: Yeah. So it's no skin off my back or off my nose. Actually, back is American English, nose is UK English. Rory, are you American?

Rory: Oh, great. Good to know I'm from the UK.

Maria: So you're American. You used back.

Rory: Oh, do I? Oh, okay.

Maria: You see, dear listener, they say whatever they want. British people use American

Rory: I didn't know it was an American thing. I thought it was a British thing.

Maria: Yeah, you see? So British people use American English, Americans use British. So this... There's no order.

Rory: It's just chaos.

Maria: Just chaos, yeah. It's a total mess. Yeah. So, where were we? It's no skin off my back if you don't take my advice. So I'm okay. It doesn't make any difference to me. I'm okay. So it makes no difference to me. So I got up early and this was no skin off my back.

Rory: It's very strange, no skin off my back.

Maria: Just means it's not a big problem for me. Yeah, but use it as it is, dear listener, right? So, so I got up that early. Anyway, this was no skin off my back. And dear listener, you don't stress the idiom. You don't look at the examiner and say, this was no skin off my back. Yes? Did you hear the idiom? Behold, I have used an idiom. So, Rory, could you give us a sentence without the conditional, but how do you say it naturally?

Rory: Well, what would it be? I don't mind getting up in the morning. It's no skin off my back.

Maria: You see, it's very low key. Okay, I'm just speaking English, it's normal. Normal words. Yeah, nothing fancy. I know it's band nine, but I'm cool. Yeah, what is? Yeah. Do we have any synonyms for early? I got up early, it was too early.

Rory: Well, you already said the ungodly hour.

Maria: Yeah, yeah, at an ungodly hour. Yeah, that's a nice one. Ungodly hour. Yeah, dear listener, it's in the Cambridge online dictionary. Ungodly hour or unearthly hour.

Rory: Ooh, earthly. Oh, that's a that's a hard one. Unearthly.

Maria: Ooh, that's a hard one. Yeah, unearthly. just say ungodly, because god, ungodly hour. I wake up each day at an ungodly hour. Extremely early. Or actually it could be extremely late. So if you get up at 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon, so that means ungodly hour. Sweet. Thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you in our next episode about getting up early in general. Bye.

Rory: Bye.