Neil Welcome to Real easy English from BBC Learning English.
Beth In this programme, we have real conversations in easy English to help you practise listening and learn new words and phrases. I’m Beth.
Neil And I’m Neil. In each episode, we talk in English about a different topic that you need for everyday speaking. If you want to read along, you can visit our website: bbclearningenglish.com.
Hello, Beth.
Beth Hi, Neil. How are you?
Neil I’m very well, thank you. What are we talking about today?
Beth Well, today’s episode is all about family. We’ll be talking about who is in our families and comparing them.
Neil OK, great. So, what do we mean when we say comparing our families, Beth?
Beth Well, when we compare two things, we look at them and see if they are the same or different and we can compare things in different ways, but we often do it with adjectives.
Neil OK, let’s start the conversation.
Beth So, Neil, how big is your family?
Neil It’s probably average, really. I have one sister, but she has three kids and I have two kids. So, when we get together with my parents, there… there are a few of us. It’s not… It’s not tiny. It’s not huge.
Beth OK, yeah. I think my family is definitely smaller than yours because I don’t have any brothers or sisters. I am an only child. So, when I get together with my family it’s very small because I also only have one cousin and she’s an only child as well. So my family’s tiny!
Neil OK. And what is your family like? It’s small, but what’s it like?
Beth It is small, but we’re very close. So, we see each other quite often. We are a bit silly. We like to go out and have food and play games and we can be quite loud, even though there aren’t many of us.
Neil OK, it sounds like you get on well with your family. Is that right?
Beth Yeah, definitely. I love spending time with my cousin and she has two children.
What about you? Do you get on well with your sister?
Neil Yes, I get on well with my sister. We don’t see each other very often because we don’t live in the same place. But when we see each other, we have a nice time. We catch up and chat.
So, Beth, we have used the expression get on well with someone. What does that mean?
Beth Well, that means that you have a good relationship with them. So, if you get on well with your sister, it means when you’re together you’re happy, you’re not fighting. It’s easy to have good conversation. You don’t really have any arguments. Maybe when you were a child, you didn’t get on well with your sister. I don’t know.
Neil Yes, I think now that we’re grown-ups it’s easier to get on well with your siblings. When… When…When I was a kid, maybe I was a bit mean to her.
Beth Oh dear!
So, Neil, your sister has three children.
Neil Yeah.
Beth What are the ages of them?
Neil Well, for a start, they’re all boys!
Beth OK. Oh, my gosh. That sounds very difficult!
Neil And the oldest one is 17 and he has just done his driving test. It’s difficult to believe because, he’s the oldest, he’s always been the oldest, but now he’s almost an adult.
Beth And is he the oldest including your children?
Neil Yeah.
Beth So out of all the kids he’s the oldest?
Neil He is, yeah.
Beth So, in my family, my cousin has two children and they are five and two.
Neil Ah! Little ones.
Beth Yeah. They are the youngest in the family. But I was the youngest in my family until they came along and I am 32! So, I was used to being the youngest, but I’m not the youngest anymore, now we’ve got little ones.
Neil Oh well! Are you sad?
Beth No, I’m OK.
Neil OK, let’s quickly recap the vocabulary we learned in this conversation.
Beth We learnt compare which means to look at two things to see if they are the same or different.
Neil** Bigger** and smaller, which are ways to compare the size of something.
Beth** Youngest** and oldest which are ways to talk about the age of someone or something.
Neil And we looked at get on well with someone, which means to have a good relationship with them.
Beth Thanks for listening to Real Easy English. Visit our website for more activities and courses to help you with your English: bbclearningenglish.com.
Neil Next time, we’ll talk about food and some of our favourite meals to eat.
Beth Mmm, delicious! See you, then. Bye!
Neil Goodbye!