Dialogue

Vocabulary

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Gina: Hello and welcome back to EnglishClass101.com. I’m Gina.
Gabriella: And I’m Gabriella.
Gina: Counting from 100 to 10,000.
Gabriella: In this lesson, we will learn about the numbers from a thousand to a million.
Gina: The conversation we will hear takes place between two friends in a café. Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
A: Have you bought a new car yet?
B: No, but I viewed a few today. I have a price range of under £15,000 and it's difficult to find a new car for that price.
A: Did you see any you liked?
B: Yes, but it was £18,999 on the road. Then I'd have to pay for tax and insurance too.
A: That's expensive. I bought my car for £12,350 second hand but it has very low mileage.
B: How much was the insurance?
A: £450 for the year.
B: Hmm, maybe I'll try the second hand garage.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Gina: In the last lesson we learned about the smaller numbers, up to a hundred, and in this lesson we’re learning about the bigger numbers.
Gabriella: We are going to take what we learned in the last lesson, and build on that in this lesson.
Gina: There were some big numbers in the conversation we just heard.
Gabriella: Yeah, cars are expensive things to buy, so there’s bound to big numbers involved!
Gina: I noticed that for every price the speakers specified that it was in pounds, but that isn’t necessary, is it?
Gabriella: No. It’s quite common just to say the numbers. You can say that the car cost £15,000, or that it just cost 15,000, as everyone would know that you’re talking about money.
Gina: And this is true of everything, right? You don’t need to specify the object you’re counting if it’s obvious.
Gabriella: Of course not. If someone asks you how many apples you bought, you can just answer “five”. You don’t need to say “five apples”.
Gina: Numbers are all about shortcuts, aren’t they!
Gabriella: They are, especially when there are big numbers. Sometimes we round numbers up or down too.
Gina: Ah, so instead of saying 3,995 we could just say around 4,000?
Gabriella: Yeah, it’s quicker and it’s close enough to be right. There’s another way to say that number too.
Gina: Oh? What’s that?
Gabriella: You could say “three, nine, nine, five.” You’ll often hear that when you go shopping, actually. A cashier might say “three thousand, nine hundred and ninety-five” or just the number – 3,995.
Gina: So there are many different ways to say large numbers.
Gabriella: Also, the word “approximately” is a useful one - this is a synonym for the word “around”, meaning the same thing.
Gina: Good to know! Okay, let’s check the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Gina: The first word we shall see is...
Gabriella: to buy [natural native speed]
Gina: to give money in order to own an item
Gabriella: to buy [slowly - broken down by syllable] to buy [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Gabriella: to view [natural native speed]
Gina: to look at or inspect something
Gabriella: to view [slowly - broken down by syllable] to view [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Gabriella: price [natural native speed]
Gina: how much something costs
Gabriella: price [slowly - broken down by syllable] price [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Gabriella: difficult [natural native speed]
Gina: something that is hard to do, the opposite of easy
Gabriella: difficult [slowly - broken down by syllable] difficult [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Gabriella: second hand [natural native speed]
Gina: something that isn’t new and has a previous owner
Gabriella: second hand [slowly - broken down by syllable] second hand [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Gabriella: expensive [natural native speed]
Gina: to cost a lot of money
Gabriella: expensive [slowly - broken down by syllable] expensive [natural native speed]
Gina: Next
Gabriella: year [natural native speed]
Gina: a length of time equal to 52 weeks or 365 days. The length of time taken for the Earth to orbit the Sun
Gabriella: year [slowly - broken down by syllable] year [natural native speed]
Gina: And last,
Gabriella: garage [natural native speed]
Gina: where cars are sold
Gabriella: garage [slowly - broken down by syllable] garage [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Gina: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Our first vocabulary item is the verb “to view”.
Gabriella: This has a similar meaning to “to see”, of course, but it also suggests that there is a purpose to why you are seeing what you’re seeing, and also some inspection to it.
Gina: Like in the dialogue, where they’ve gone to view a car.
Gabriella: That’s right. They went to the garage purposely to see the car and to check it out before buying it. They viewed it.
Gina: Next is “second hand”.
Gabriella: Something that is bought brand new from a store is first hand – your hands are the first hands it’s been in. If you buy something that is used, then it’s “second hand” as it used to belong to somebody else.
Gina: So brand new clothes from a store are brand new, or, I suppose we could say “first hand”, but used clothes from a charity shop would be second hand?
Gabriella: Yeah. We wouldn’t use the phrase “first hand” as we’d just call the item new, but it explains the concept well. Likewise, a second hand car could have had one or more previous owners. With cars, second hand is used to mean that it is used and can mean any number of previous owners.
Gina: Our last item is “garage”.
Gabriella: In the dialogue, it refers to a place that sells cars, but it can mean many other car-related places too.
Gina: If your car breaks down, it will be fixed in a garage.
Gabriella: Yeah, and when you park your car overnight in a building that is also called a garage.
Gina: So garages always relate to cars and other vehicles.
Gabriella: That’s right.
Gina: Ok, let’s move on to the grammar.
GRAMMAR POINT
Gina: In the grammar point, let’s carry on from the last lesson and learn some larger numbers.
Gabriella: I hope everyone remembers the numbers from last lesson, as we’re going to need them for this one too!
Gina: Let’s go over the new numbers first.
Gabriella: Okay. All of these are explained in the lesson notes, and I advise checking the notes if you’re not sure, but our new numbers start at a hundred and then increase in multiples of ten.
Gina: So it’s one thousand.
Gabriella: Ten thousand.
Gina: One hundred thousand.
Gabriella: One million.
Gina: And we’ve included a couple of special numbers too…
Gabriella: Yes. “Two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand” can also be called “a quarter of a million”, because that’s what it literally is.
Gina: And “five hundred thousand” is also called “half a million” because again, that’s what it is.
Gabriella: When writing large numbers it’s good to put a comma after each third number, as it makes it easier to read and check that you’ve written it correctly.
Gina: So “two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand” would be written as two-five-zero-comma-zero-zero-zero.
Gabriella: Yes. The comma breaks it up. When you read a large number, start from the left and work your way across through the thousands and then below.
Gina: So one-two-comma-three-seven-five would be said as…
Gabriella: Twelve thousand, three-hundred and seventy-five.
Gina: Sometimes the “and” between hundred and the smaller number isn’t said, is it?
Gabriella: No. In British English is usually is, but it can still be dropped, so be careful for that.
Gina: Okay, let’s try another number. Four-two-three-comma-eight-six-five.
Gabriella: That’s a large number! You would say that as “four hundred and twenty three thousand, eight hundred and sixty five.”
Gina: That is a large number!
Gabriella: Okay, now you try one. One-seven-five-three-nine-nine.
Gina: No comma?
Gabriella: Not this time!
Gina: Okay, that’s “a hundred and seventy five thousand, three hundred and ninety nine.”
Gabriella: This time (A name) said “a hundred” instead of “one hundred”. That’s okay too, as it means the same thing.
Gina: That’s something else to watch out for!
Gabriella: Yes, it is. There are so many different ways to say numbers, and it can be confusing, so never be afraid to ask people to repeat the number or even write it down if you’re not sure.
Gina: I think we’re done with numbers now.
Gabriella: I think so too.

Outro

Gina: That’s all for this lesson, and for the Bootcamp series.
Gabriella: We hope you enjoyed the lessons and found them useful!
Gina: Thanks for listening, and see you in another series!
Gabriella: Bye!

Comments

Hide