Neil Hello and welcome to Real Easy English from BBC Learning English. In this podcast, we talk in easy English about a different topic each week to help you learn. I’m Neil.
Beth And I’m Beth. If you want to read along with this episode, visit our website for a text version and all the vocabulary: bbclearningenglish.com.
Neil Hi, Beth. How are you today?
Beth I’m very well, thank you, Neil. How are you?
Neil Well, the sun is shining today, Beth, so I’m very happy. What are we talking about in today’s episode?
Beth Well, funnily enough, we are talking about the weather.
Neil Excellent! In the UK, we love to talk about the weather because it changes a lot.
Beth It does, it can be raining and then sunny, all sorts of temperatures, in just one day.
Neil But what’s the weather like today?
Beth Well, today, it’s sunny. There are blue skies. It’s really nice. But later on, it’s supposed to get very hot, boiling.
Neil** Boiling**? Boiling is water that’s one hundred degrees. It has those bubbles in it. But we use boiling also to talk about very hot weather.
Beth Do you like it when it’s boiling, Neil?
Neil No, I don’t like it when it’s boiling. I like it when it’s warm and sunny. But if it’s boiling, that’s too hot for me.
Beth I would agree. What sort of weather do you like?
Neil I like it when it’s sunny. I don’t mind if it it’s cold on a sunny day. It’s fine for me.
Beth Yeah, we have that in the winter quite a lot here. It might be blue sky, sunshine, but freezing, really cold.
Neil** Freezing**. Freezing is literally zero degrees, when the water turns into ice. But also we use freezing just to mean that something is very cold.
Beth Yeah. So, for example, if you forget your coat, then you might be very cold. You’d say ‘Oh, it’s freezing’. But, actually, maybe it’s ten degrees outside.
Neil Yeah, I went camping at the weekend, Beth.
Beth Ooh, very nice!
Neil The weather is very important when you’re camping.
Beth It is. How was it?
Neil It was warm and sunny in the daytime and at night time, the temperature dropped. It felt freezing. It wasn’t freezing, but it felt very, very cold.
Beth Yeah, that happens when you go camping in the UK. Did it rain?
Neil It didn’t rain. I was very lucky. There was only one short shower.
Beth You had a shower?
Neil No, I was camping!
Beth You were dirty!
Neil But we can use the word shower to mean a short time of rain.
Beth Yeah. We often hear about showers on the weather forecast. They say there will be showers today, which means rain on and off.
Neil In the UK, the weather is very important for our plans, especially in the summer. So, Beth, do you have any plans? What are you doing this weekend?
Beth Well, I am meeting some friends and the weather will be important because if it is sunny and warm, then we will go for a walk. But if it’s raining, we might stay inside. What about you?
Neil Well, my son plays cricket and he has a match at the weekend. But if it’s raining, he won’t play cricket because you can’t play cricket in the rain.
Well, hopefully, it won’t be too hot later because we don’t like boiling weather. Do we, Beth?
Beth No, definitely not.
Neil Let’s look at the vocabulary we learned during the conversation.
We had boiling which we use to say that it’s very hot.
Beth** Freezing**, which we use to say that it’s very cold.
Neil** Showers** – rain for short amounts of time.
Beth And we learnt a way to talk about possibilities using if. For example, if it’s sunny this weekend, I’ll go for a walk.
Neil That’s it for this episode of Real Easy English.
If you want more programmes from BBC Learning English try our learning English stories podcast, where we tell classic stories and dramas in English to help you learn. Search Learning English Stories on your podcast app or visit our website: bbclearningenglish.com.
Beth And next time, we’ll talk about cooking.
Neil Mmm! See you then.
Beth Bye!